Study: Exercise may prevent addiction Studies in both humans and animals suggest that exercise may help prevent drug or alcohol addiction. The underlying question is whether regular physical activity spurs changes in the brain involving neurochemicals that sense and reinforce pleasure. The US government is pumping more money into research to find out. In a Brown University study, women in a smoking-cessation program were twice as likely to kick the habit if they also exercised three times a week. They also gained only half as much weight. Similar results were found in a study of teens and tweens. Those who said they exercise daily were half as likely to smoke, and 40 percent less likely to experiment with marijuana.

Study: Exercise Can Reverse Aging Effects A new study finds aerobic exercise, including walking, can turn back time by as much as 12 to 15 years as people age. Any workout helps, but the more intense, the better the benefits. The study from Britain found people can give a 60-year-old the body of the 40-something-year-old by getting out and getting some exercise. The research confirms the long held belief that changes associated with aging cannot only be slowed, but reversed if people get moving. The reason: many of the changes that happen in aging come from inactivity.

Children 'taking insufficient exercise' Nearly nine out of ten children fail to engage in the minimum amount of physical activity, 5 hours a week, recommended to avoid long-term health problems, a Scout Association study has found. A number of factors ranging from a lack of outdoor space and excessive school homework to peer pressure and parental fears about safety were cited.

Sleeping babies' brains are buzzing During a study at Karolinska Institute in Sweden, Lagercrantz and colleagues scanned the brains of 12 sleeping infants for 10 minutes using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), finding five resting-state networks engaged in spontaneous activity. As with findings in adult brains, the regions were associated with visual, motor and auditory processing. What does this mean for a new mom? "This confirms the concept that talking, singing and rocking the baby is not meaningless as earlier believed, but very good for the baby," Lagercrantz told LiveScience. For neuroscientists, the finding could shed light on how the human brain develops, since fewer networks were found in infant brains compared with those of adults.

Taking a bite out of eating disorders According to a new Harvard University study, eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia occur twice as often among women as among men, and are most prevalent among women under the age of 20. These researchers also say that binge eating is more common than once thought. No wonder middle schools are beginning to discuss these issues. Parents play a critical role, but coaches, teachers, and marketers play a part. Sending messages that reinforce a girl's sense of her own worth will reduce eating disorders, and perhaps finally define beauty as more than skin deep.

Belief in exercise may make it more effective People who think they're getting a good workout obtain more benefits than those who perform the exact same activities, but don't think what they are doing is exercise, according to the findings of a study by Harvard researchers. While the placebo effect of fake pills is widely accepted, Crum and Langer note, no one has yet studied whether the belief that exercise is maintaining fitness might exert a kind of placebo effect as well. "These results support the hypothesis that exercise affects health in part or in whole via the placebo effect," Crum and Langer write. "Whether the change in physiological health was brought about directly or indirectly, it is clear that health is significantly affected by mind-set."

'That's the way we were brought up' Baby boomer Debbie Giglio of Hopewell Township, left, with her mother, Eleanor Winters of Baden, fits the mold of the "sandwich generation" on caring for aging parents. Debbie Giglio's mother is quite active for a 73-year-old. Pick a day, any day, and Eleanor Winters might be out dancing with her husband, Bill, or at bingo, or on her way to the shopping mall. Although her mother is constantly on the go, it doesn't stop Giglio, 54, of Hopewell Township, from checking in on her. Even with running between a full-time job, ceramics and choir, and her own children and grandchildren. Giglio's relationship with her mother fits the mold of a recent study that found baby boomers, the generation born in the 1950s and '60s, are more committed to caring for their aging parents than members of their parents' generation were. For some, it means feeling obligated to check in, mow the lawn or move next door to their parents.

U Of M Study: Girls Shouldn't Obsessively Weigh In Teen girls who frequently weighed themselves were more likely than others to resort to unhealthy dieting measures, and some ended up gaining close to twice as much weight, a study of Minnesota students found. The most scale-obsessed girls in the University of Minnesota research were more likely to skip meals, use diet pills or laxatives, smoke, and binge and vomit to lose weight. The act of getting on the scale, weighing yourself every day, can lead to an unhealthy weight preoccupation, And teenage girls who are concerned about their weight are at great risk for unhealthy weight control behaviors.

More students getting free breakfasts Students from low-income families are eating more free and reduced-price breakfasts at school, an anti-hunger group said Thursday. The federal breakfast program feeds only two in five who need it. Still, it reached a record 7.7 million low-income children in the 2005-2006 school year, according to a report from the Food Research and Action Center. New Mexico posted the biggest increase, with 58 children getting breakfast for every 100 getting free and reduced-price lunches, up from 53 a year earlier.

New Info on Eating Disorders in Stanford/Packard Children's Study Parenting a child with an eating disorder--monitoring meals, friends and activities--can be a full-time job. But the study from researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital indicate a need for increased vigilance in pre-teen weight loss in seemingly healthy children. The study, which appears in the December issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, indicates that pre-teens with eating disorders tend to lose weight more quickly than adolescents with the condition and weigh comparatively less at diagnosis.

Teen Use of Eating Disorders Web Sites on the Rise
"People have always picked up and shared dangerous information," said one of the study's authors, Dr. Rebecka Peebles, an instructor of adolescent medicine at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University School of Medicine. "The Internet gives instant access to new and potentially dangerous information kids may not have encountered on their own." And parents often unaware children are visiting dangerous sites, study finds. Teens with eating disorders often turn to the Web -- sometimes for help with their problem but also for new suggestions on ways to lose weight. Parents, however, seem largely unaware that their children are using the Internet to visit eating disorder Web sites. Those are two conclusions from a new study in the December issue of Pediatrics that also found that teens who look for eating disorder information on the Internet are more likely to be hospitalized for their condition than teens who don't turn to the Web.

Mediafamily.org cites video games for violence, sex A chainsaw-wielding killer and blood-splattered shooting rampages are featured in some of the 10 video games that a media watchdog group says should be avoided by kids and teens. The group urged parents to take a stronger role in safeguarding their children from games that glamorize sex and violence, showing graphic scenes of sex and violence. Advocates said they wanted to make parents and kids aware of some of the games they should avoid on store shelves this holiday season. All of the games were M-rated, intended for those aged 17 and over. The group's list of "games to avoid" is on its Web site, http://www.mediafamily.org

Violent Video Games Leave Teenagers Emotionally Aroused
Video games are big business with nearly $10 billion in sales in the United States last year. But along with growing sales come growing concerns about what effects these games may be having on the young people who play them.  A new study has found that adolescents who play violent video games may exhibit lingering effects on brain function, including increased activity in the region of the brain that governs emotional arousal and decreased activity in the brain's executive function, which is associated with control, focus and concentration. The findings were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA)

New study shows teenage girls' use of diet pills doubles over five-year span A study released today by the University of Minnesota's "Project EAT" (Eating Among Teens)  ...found that high school-aged females' use of diet pills nearly doubled from 7.5 to 14.2 percent. By the ages of 19 and 20, 20 percent of females surveyed used diet pills. more

Medics 'under-report child abuse' report Many doctors are fearful of reporting suspected abuse. Many doctors and nurses who see a child they suspect has been physically abused do not report it to the appropriate authorities, a survey has indicated.

Tackling the threat of child abuse online  Peter Robbins is the Chief executive, of the Internet Watch Foundation, a UK watchdog set up to combat potentially illegal content online, involving a partnership between the government, police and the internet service provider industry that was needed to tackle the distribution of child abuse images online. 
http://www.iwf.org.uk/