Quick Study: Should Kids Take On Vegan Diets?

Quick Study [kwik stuhd-ee]: The Huffington Post Canada’s tips to make your life a little sweeter, five minutes at a time. Think of it as a cheatsheet for your general well-being.

Apparently ‘Old McDonald Had A Farms’ doesn’t cut it when it comes to early childhood education any more. Vegan is Love: Having Heart and Taking Action isn’t the typical bedtime story you’d find parents reading to their kids before kissing them goodnight — unless that parent likes to leave images of bloody steaks in meat lockers lingering in the dreams of their six year old.

The picture book, which was released last week, is being slammed as inappropriate, with experts saying the graphic images are akin to brainwashing children to think that veganism is the only lifestyle capable of “standing up for yourself and all other living beings and that is love.”

The book also reignites the debate of whether a vegan diet is right for young children. A diet that’s free of meats or foods produced by animals has been found to have benefits like lowered risk for diseases, physical perks, and an overall healthier lifestyle. But many parents and nutritional experts question whether the same applies to those who are still growing.

The vocal vegan community online appears to be quite supportive of the idea — as one woman wrote on Twitter:

Babies and children THRIVE on plant-based diets! “@snobunni101 RT @EuroVegan: #vegan is safe for all ages! http://t.co/skPvjHe6”

For Timi Gustafson, a clinical dietician based in Seattle, Washington, it’s a question of nutrition. As he wrote in Seattlepi.com, infants and toddlers are at a stage of rapid growth and development and shouldn’t face any dietary restriction.

Gustafson also noted, however, that a vegan diet differs from the typical North American diet, which is typically calorie laden and high in sugar and fats. By adopting a vegan diet, children and their parents could lay down the framework for a healthier style of eating in the future.

Other risks potentially faced by children on a vegan diet are a lack of calories, as the diet tends not to be calorie-dense, as well as a lack of protein, which is consumed primarily from meat. Both calories and protein are prime sources of energy.

SEE: The 5 nutrients vegans need to keep in mind. Story continues below:

TEXT VERSION OF SLIDESHOW HERE

While the vegan diet certainly presents inherent risks and benefits for kids, Gustafson said it’s ultimately the child’s choice as to their everyday diet.

“What matters most is that children don’t feel forced to stay within strict dietary limits that don’t allow for some flexibility… it’s the same with all diet and lifestyle changes – if [the habits] don’t become natural, they won’t last long,” said Gustafson.

SLIDESHOW TEXT VERSION:

  • Ask any pediatrician and they’ll tell you that calcium is key to the growth of strong and healthy bones in children. The problem is that since most Canadians get their calcium from dairy products, vegans are often left to find alternative source, such as through pills or supplements.
  • Skip out on iron and you’ll probably have to skip out on most of life. That’s because you’ll be feeling tired, weak, breathless, or suffering from headaches– all signs of iron deficiency. Fortunately for vegans, dark leafy vegetables can provide a good source of iron if meat is off the table.
  • Protein plays an important role in any diet. It not only serves as a source of energy but also as a building block to keep your body in tip-top shape. It’s a nutrient that provides amino acids which helps repair injuries such as tears to muscle tissue or cuts to the skin. For an animal-free source of protein, vegans can look to nuts and beans.
  • Think of Vitamin D as the precursor to calcium. While calcium helps with the development of strong bones, the body still needs something to help absorb all that calcium. That’s where vitamin D comes into play and vegans can look to the sun and supplements for their animal-free sources of vitamin D.
  • For vegans, vitamin B-12 is tough to come by since it’s a vitamin that only occurs naturally in animal products. Fortunately, an increasing number of products — like soy milk and cereals — are being fortified with synthetic vitamin B-12 which can lower the risk to to brain damage and damage to the central nervous system.
Apr 30, 2012 | 0 comments View Post

Can Simply Thinking About Your Phone Lead To A Car Crash?

New research shows that just thinking about receiving a call or a text message is enough to raise the risk of a crash.

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Is Parkinson’s Disease More Likely To Strike People With This Personality Trait?

Some personality traits appear to be linked with the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, a new study suggests. The results show patients with Parkinson’s disease are more likely to be cautious and avoid taking risks compared with people who don’t have Parkinson’s.

Apr 30, 2012 | 0 comments View Post

The Surprising Number Of U.S. Adults With Chronic Pain

If you’re a chronic-pain sufferer, you’re not alone.

A new study from Gallup-Healthways shows that 31 percent of U.S. adults have some sort of neck or back condition that causes them pain, 26 percent have some sort of leg or knee condition and 18 percent have another condition that causes chronic pain.

Forty-seven percent of people in the survey said they had at least one kind of chronic pain (meaning they had either neck or back pain, leg or knee pain, or another kind of pain), and 7 percent of people said they experienced all three kinds of chronic pain.

The researchers also found that more than a third of people who are in their mid-50s and up have some sort of ongoing neck or back pain.

Chronic knee and leg pain also plagues about a third of people in that age range, according to the data from the 2011 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.

Researchers also found that more than one in five people between late-40s and late-80s experienced pain that comes back again, according to the Gallup study.

The results are based on the data from 353,000 surveys from people ages 18 and older. The survey asked participants whether they had any sort of recurring pain condition over the last 12 months.

Notably, the researchers found that reports of chronic pain differed by age. Reports increased between ages 18 and 59, from 16 percent to 37 percent. But the researchers found that chronic pain reports stopped increasing once people hit 60.

One possible reason for this is that “it is possible that those who survive into their 70s and 80s are typically less likely to have such chronic pain conditions,” the researchers wrote in the report.

Researchers also found that reports of chronic pain go down as income levels go up — for example, 37 percent of people who make less than $36,000 per year report neck or back chronic pain, compared with 26 percent of people who make $90,000 or more per year. The researchers hypothesized that a big explanation for this is the lower rates of health insurance among people with lower incomes.

Weight also seemed to play a role in those who experience chronic pain. And perhaps this shouldn’t come as a surprise — after all, a past Gallup-Healthways poll showed that a high body mass index (BMI, a ratio of height to weight) is also linked with higher rates of daily pain.

Click through the slideshow to see how chronic pain affects people based on their BMI, according to the new survey results:

Apr 30, 2012 | 0 comments View Post

Tell Us: What Do You REALLY Want For Mother’s Day?

Mother’s Day 2012 is May 13th. (Listen up, dads. According to PlumDistrict.com, 44 percent of you forget the day to honor mom entirely.) This year, 62 percent of consumers polled by PriceGrabber plan to spend less than $100 on Mother’s Day gifts and most will be ordered online. Flowers will be the most popular purchase; gift cards, clothing and accessories are next in line.

But the tangible items that will be given to moms on May 13th aren’t exactly in tune with what they want — survey after survey reveals that this Mother’s Day, mom’s greatest wish is for a little R&R, ideally an entire day off from all responsibility.

PlumDistrict.com polled over 19,000 women and eight out of ten said they would prefer to sleep in on Mother’s Day instead of watching the sunrise with their kids. One out of three admitted that they secretly want to be alone on the holiday.

Forty-eight percent of moms who participated in an online survey for Ebates.com named a day at the spa as their number one gift choice. Men, however, mistakenly ranked spa day as number three on the list of what they think their partners want, placing flowers and jewelry above.

When CafeMom readers were asked to contribute to a Mother’s Day wish list, the theme was overwhelmingly the same. “A day off from EVERYTHING,” one woman responded. “Just one morning to sleep in! My 9 month old loooove being an alarm clock at 4 a.m.,” another pleaded.

Here on HuffPost, tweeters were in sync, too. “No presents, just peace,” @MelbHab declared. Now it’s your turn, tell us what you REALLY want this Mother’s Day by tweeting @Huffpostparents #momwants.

Apr 30, 2012 | 0 comments View Post

Women’s Rights To Safety, Education, Vary Greatly Around The World (PHOTOS)

It’s no surprise a woman’s quality of life varies greatly around the world — but what many of us don’t realize is just how dire circumstances continue to be in most of the countries around the globe.

Though it was recently reported women now receive the majority of post-secondary degrees across all levels in the US, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, in other respects there are serious concerns. Recent stories about gender preferences for babies in Canada brought into the spotlight surprising attitudes on this controversial topic, as it’s been shown to correlate with sex-selective abortions and a lower quality of care for girls.

Valerine M. Hudson, a professor of political science at Texas A&M University, developed the WomanStats Project in an attempt to gather as much information as possible about women around the world, as well as “[assess] the linkage between the security of women on the one hand, and the security, stability, and behavior of nation-states on the other.”

She and her team have now teamed up with Foreign Policy to create maps of some of that data, showing, for example, the high rate of discrepancy in education in Afghanistan, or the almost complete lack of women in government in China.

Countries in Africa and the Middle East are shown to be particularly challenging places for women, for both political and cultural reasons. While initiatives have been put into place to help these areas empower the female population, WomanStats Project’s data shows there is still quite a way to go.

SEE: Maps of the world showing the various problems affecting women. Text continues below:

Child Marriage
Of note: The countries in which underage marriage is common and encouraged include India, Turkey, and Panama, among many others. Marriage under the age of 18 has been correlated with higher rates of dying young, health problems, living in poverty and illiteracy.

Female Genital Cutting
Of note: While the majority of countries scarcely engage in this practice, the countries where more than half of the women have their genitals cut include Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Egypt.

Son Preference And Sex Ratios
Of note: Canada, Colombia and Chile, along with other countries, have notably higher rates of abnormal sex ratios, which has been shown to correlate with sex-selective abortions and discrimination in care for girls.

Women’s Physical Security
Of note: The countries in which women lack physical security — which is defined as fewer laws against domestic violence, rape, and marital rape, their enforcement, the taboos or norms about reporting the crimes and existence of ‘honour killings’ — include Cambodia, Morocco and Peru, among many others in Africa and the Middle East.

Trafficking Of Females
Of note: The countries in which trafficking is not illegal and commonly practiced include Myanmar, Venezuela and North Korea. Studies have found that 70 per cent of trafficked women end up in the sex trade.

Maternal Mortality
Of note: Maternal mortality rate is linked with the general health of a society, as a lower rate positively affects families and economy. The countries that have more than 300 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births include almost all of central Africa, Pakistan and Bolivia.

Discrepancy In Education
Of note: The countries in which there is a greater than 20 per cent difference between male and female education, as well ‘significant’ legal and cultural restrictions to it, include Afghanistan, Somalia and Haiti.
Educating women has been shown to help improve health, poverty and create equality between men and women.

Government Participation
Of note: The countries in which 0 to 10 per cent of parliament is composed of women include China, Japan and Brazil (despite their female president). A 2010 study by Deloitte emphasized the importance of women in government in order to foster equality. They found that a critical mass of one-third of women in government can help societies move beyond ‘gender-centric issues.’

Discrepant Government Behaviour
Of note: The countries in which there is virtually no enforcement of laws concerning the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women include Iran, Papua New Guinea, and Eritrea, despite the latter two countries’ accession to the convention in 1995.

Apr 30, 2012 | 0 comments View Post

5 Post-Workout Pains It’s OK To Ignore

By Elizabeth Goodman Artis for Shape.com

There’s nothing like an intense, sweaty workout to make you feel like a million bucks — calmer, happier and more comfortable in your skin (and your jeans). But anytime you push yourself physically, especially if it’s a tougher-than-normal class or you’re getting back into a routine after a hiatus, you may experience a few mild symptoms, especially if you’re not properly hydrated. When should you be concerned?

“I tell my clients that the one symptom they should seek immediate attention for is any kind of chest pain or tension in the chest, arm, neck or even back that persists for more than 20 minutes — it could indicate a heart attack,” cautions Tommy Boone, Ph.D., M.P.H., board member of the American Society of Exercise Physiologists and editor in chief of The Journal of Exercise Physiology. Otherwise, here are a five exercise side effects that are okay to experience from time to time, and when to seek medical help.

For more on fitness and exercise, click here.

Apr 30, 2012 | 0 comments View Post

Why Are Twice As Many Women Dying During Childbirth?

According to recent statistics recorded in The Lancet, the number of women who have died during childbirth has doubled in the last five years – with London having twice the mortality rate as the rest of the UK.

Between 2005 and 2011, maternal deaths rose from 10 deaths per every 100,000 women to 20. In London alone, there were 11 birth-related deaths in 2005, which shot up to 31 deaths in 2011.

So why are 21st century women, who have access to modern medicine and technology, still dying from childbirth complications?

According to lead researcher Dr Susan Bewley, professor of complex obstetrics at Kings College, the sharp increase in older mothers having IVF (a treatment that increases the number of multiple births and chance of complex pregnancies), soaring levels of obesity and the fact women are giving birth to more children than ever before in the UK, are all key factors behind these statistics.

Bewley claims that British maternity services are buckling under the pressure as birth rates soar. Births in London have increased by 27% in the last 10 years (from 106,000 in 2001 to 134,000 in 2011), but the numbers of midwives and obstetrics have stayed the same.

In many cases in London, labour and birth complications arose because the doctors were too junior to deal with the situation or not supervised, adds Bewley.

Talking about the statistics, Bewley told the Telegraph: “These are bald figures, there is a lot about them that we don’t know. We do know that women are becoming pregnant when they are older and fatter, and have more complex health issues.

“It could be that hospitals in London are actually coping surprisingly well against greater odds, or it could mean there are problems with the services.”

Cathy Warwick, president of the Royal College of Midwives, told the Independent: “London still has some of the worst shortages of midwives across the country. There are more women facing more complex pregnancies creating a difficult situation. We need to target resources at women who need more support.”

A tragic example of the UK’s childbirth mortality crisis includes young mother, Sareena Ali, 27, who recently died with her baby following an emergency caesarean.

Ali from Essex was allegedly left unattended by midwives after being admitted to hospital for a planned induction. She later suffered a ruptured womb and cardiac arrest and died five days later.

Apr 30, 2012 | 0 comments View Post

11-Year-Old Girl Wins £10 Million NHS Compensation

A girl who suffered devastating injuries at birth is to receive compensation worth £10.8 million.

The sum awarded to 11-year-old Milly Evans at London’s High Court today is thought to be one of the highest – if not the highest – clinical negligence awards.

After Milly’s birth at Lincoln County Hospital, on March 1 2001, she was transferred to the neo-natal unit, where she underwent resuscitation and suffered a seizure.

Her parents, Andy and Kate, claimed that if the baby’s heart had been properly monitored, the midwife would have spotted her fetal distress sooner, and Milly would have been delivered earlier without suffering catastrophic injury.

Their counsel, Susan Rodway QC, told the judge, Sir Robert Nelson, that it was a tragic case. She said: “It is yet another incident of an avoidable accident at birth which caused devastating injuries.”

Milly suffers from cerebral palsy and requires 24-hour care and help with all aspects of daily living.

She is confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak, although her intellect has remained fairly well intact and she communicates through sophisticated eye-gaze equipment.

She sat smiling in court as the judge approved a settlement involving a lump sum of £5.866 million and lifelong periodic payments rising to £204,000 a year.

He had heard that United Lincolnshire Hospital NHS Trust admitted liability in March 2010 but had contested the amount of damages until the parties recently reached agreement.

He told 45-year-old Mr Evans, a former squadron leader in the RAF and member of the Red Arrows display team, who was unable to continue his career because of Milly’s disabilities, that he and his 41-year-old wife, Kate, had both done a “fantastic” job.

“The love and devotion you have shown to Milly with her problems has been enormous,” he added.

Paul Rees QC, for the trust, paid tribute to the family and offered them an unreserved apology for the events surrounding Milly’s birth.

Mr Rees added: “No amount of fine words can put right that wrong. I know that and everyone in court knows that. But they are entitled to hear in open court that apology.”

The family’s lawyers, Access Legal from Shoosmiths, said that the money would ensure that Milly had a positive life experience as far as possible given her condition.

She would now be able to have a specially-adapted home, with hoists and a hydrotherapy pool, which would be big enough for her to access all rooms.

Partner Denise Stephens said: “Milly is an amazing girl, with a beautiful smile and a sense of humour.

“She requires round-the-clock care and attention, and will do so for the rest of her life.

“It was crucial, therefore, that we were able to secure a compensation award of this size to provide for Milly’s needs.”

Mrs Evans, who lives with her family in Lincolnshire, said later: “Milly is a very beautiful, bright, kind and loving daughter, with a wicked sense of humour.

“Unfortunately, she is trapped inside a body that does not function, and she is not able to do the very basic things that we all take for granted.

“I feel utter grief and loss for the life that Milly could have had if she had she not been injured.

“Milly is a very much-loved member of the family and we all feel privileged to have such a lovely daughter.

“The family have been through a very difficult time. The money will never make up for the mistake that condemned Milly to a lifetime of dependency on others.

“However, it will ensure that Milly is provided with full-time care and equipment throughout her life. We now want to build a loving and secure life for Milly in a new adapted home.

“Milly is incredibly hard-working, adventurous and positively enjoys many activities. including sailing.

“We are over the moon that not only will Milly be looked after financially for the rest of her life, we can now pay for the
technology and modifications needed to help her achieve her full potential.”

Apr 30, 2012 | 0 comments View Post

Third Of Adults With Arthritis Battle Anxiety or Depression

According to a recent article in Arthritis Care & Research, one-third of US adults with arthritis, over the age of 45, report having anxiety or depression.

The research paper highlights that anxiety is nearly twice as common as depression among sufferers.

“Given their high prevalence and the effective treatment options that are available, we suggest that all people with arthritis be screened for anxiety and depression,” said Dr Louise Murphy, a lead researcher with the Arthritis Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Florida, in a statement.

“With so many arthritis patients not seeking mental health treatment, health care providers are missing an intervention opportunity that could improve the quality of life for those with arthritis,” added Dr Murphy.

According to a recent report from a coalition of leading charities, people with long-term conditions are twice or three times more likely to experience depression.

Arthritis Care say there are 10 million people living with arthritis in the UK, and one in five of the adult population has arthritis.

Judith Brodie, chief executive of Arthritis Care, told Huffpost Lifestyle: “In a recent survey we found there is a huge emotional and psychological impact on people with arthritis, including over 68% saying they feel depressed when their pain is at its worst.”

The analysis of 2,263 surveys demonstrated that – while a third of people with the condition said talking ‘helped’ to relieve symptoms – one in five (21%) revealed nothing made them feel better.

“This ‘hopeless and helpless’ mood is often how people first present to our helpline,” continues Brodie.

“We want to see people with arthritis having much easier access to GPs who understand their condition, and more support to relieve, manage and cope their pain and distress. While access to mental health services is also important, there is more to be done at an earlier stage”

In an interesting recent twist, researchers recently found that a drug designed to beat depression could provide a life-changing treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee.

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