Bedtime stories
Do parents and children engage with print books differently than electronic-based books? Short answer: Yes. A study, “Differences in Parent-Toddler Interactions with Electronic versus Print Books,” appearing in the April 2019 issue of Pediatrics, studied how 37 parent-toddler pairs interacted using three book formats: print books, basic electronic books on tablet and enhanced electronic books on tablet (featuring sound effects/animation). They found that parents and toddlers verbalized more when reading print books; when using electronic books, parents tended to talk less about the story and more about the technology itself. They also suggest that toddlers become focused on the tasks of tapping or swiping on electronic devices, instead of maintaining focus on interactions with the parent around the story. This difference held true for both basic and enhanced tablet books, suggesting it was not just the enhancements that were interfering with parent-toddler verbalizations and collaboration, but the tablet itself. One theory: Tablets may be seen by parents and children as individual-use items, rather than something to be shared.
Q&A with your doctor
When patients and caregivers ask questions, they are more fully engaged as part of their own healthcare teams, says Jeffrey Brady, M.D., writing for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Questions also help clinicians make sure their patients (and family members or caregivers) understand their diagnoses and treatment plans. AHRQ has introduced the Question Builder mobile app, available at no charge on iTunes and Google Play. The app helps patients prepare and organize questions and other helpful information ahead of time and puts that information at their fingertips, as part of an email or calendar appointment that allows for note-taking during medical visits. Here’s how it works: Users input details of their upcoming appointments, such as date and reason for the visit. They are then prompted to choose questions that are common in different situations, and they can add customized questions as well. To address privacy concerns, information is not stored in the app; instead, users can email questions to themselves or others or save them to the notes section of their calendar appointments. This way, users can retrieve questions and make notes about the answers during their appointments.
Join the resistance
Our muscles are invaluable. They’re the reason we can walk, run, climb and carry things. But muscle starts to deteriorate when we reach our 30s, according to an article in The New York Times. After age 40, we lose on average 8 percent of our muscle mass every decade, and this phenomenon continues to accelerate at a faster rate after age 60. Studies show that this loss of muscle hastens the onset of diseases, limits mobility, and is linked to premature death. Another detrimental consequence is the impact on bones. The same factors that help maintain muscle are the same factors that keep bones strong and dense. So as we lose muscle with age – a process called sarcopenia – our bones become brittle, a process known as osteopenia, said Dr. Wayne Westcott, a professor of exercise science at Quincy College in Massachusetts. Most people accept the loss of muscle, bone and all the downsides that follow as a natural part of aging. But studies show we can slow and delay these processes by years or even decades with a muscle strengthening program that works our entire body. Scientists at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging found that doing just two resistance-training sessions each week can reverse the age-related cellular damage that contributes to sarcopenia and functional impairment.
Calories count
Members of WW (formerly Weight Watchers) can now ask Alexa or Google Home how many smart points they have left that day, and more. The company launched an Alexa Skill and a Google Home Action that are integrated with the wellness program’s software applications to enable customers to follow their diet plans, via their smart speakers. The WW subscriber can verbally ask their Google Home or Amazon smart speaker questions such as: How many “smart points” in a banana? How many points do I have left for today? What are some food choices for dinner, with the points I have left for today? While a general search engine like Google could find the number of calories in, say, a banana, Google doesn’t really understand “smart points” or WW’s program, said WW VP of Product Management Nic Chikhani.
Looking ahead
Researchers have successfully frozen testicular tissue from monkeys too young to produce sperm and used this tissue to produce a pregnancy resulting in live, healthy offspring, reports the National Institutes of Health. The finding is an early step in the development of a method to store testicular tissue for children before they undergo fertility-destroying treatment for cancer or other disorders. The research team was led by Kyle E. Orwig, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and was funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study appears in Science. According to previous research, more than 80 percent of children with cancer will survive, and 30 percent of survivors will be infertile as adults.
Smart choices
Our everyday choices can have a lasting effect on our heart and vascular health. Adopting a heart-healthy eating plan, getting more exercise, avoiding tobacco and managing known risk factors are among the key recommendations in the 2019 Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease guideline from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA). Also, it is recommended that aspirin should only rarely be used to help prevent heart attacks and stroke in people without known cardiovascular disease. Nearly one out of three deaths in the U.S. is due to cardiovascular disease. Experts advise aiming for at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercises such as brisk walking, swimming, dancing or cycling each week. For people who are inactive, some activity is better than none, and small 10-minute bursts of activity throughout the day can add up for those with hectic schedules. Currently, only half of American adults get enough exercise, and prolonged periods of sitting can counteract the benefits of exercise.