ScienceDaily: Living Well News

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• Diets high in animal protein may help prevent functional decline in elderly individuals
• Prosocial youth less likely to associate with deviant peers, engage in problem behaviors
• Education boosts brain function long after school, study shows
• Gesturing with hands a powerful tool for children's math learning
• Tracking neighborhood eating habits to promote healthier diets
• Cosmetic treatment can open door to bacteria
• Girls born small or underweight twice as likely to be infertile in adulthood
• Social media and science: Don't choose a diet based on what's trending
• Feeding gut microbiota: Nutrition, probiotics key factors for digestive health
• Tricky balancing act: Antibiotics versus the gut microbiota
• Strong parental networks: Not good for all children
• Healthy midlife diet may prevent dementia later

Diets high in animal protein may help prevent functional decline in elderly individuals Posted: 11 Mar 2014 01:31 PM PDT A diet high in protein, particularly animal protein, may help elderly individuals function at higher levels physically, psychologically, and socially, according to a study. The research suggests that as people age, their ability to absorb or process protein may decline. To compensate for this loss, protein requirements may increase with age.

Prosocial youth less likely to associate with deviant peers, engage in problem behaviors Posted: 11 Mar 2014 01:30 PM PDT Prosocial behaviors, or actions intended to help others, remain an important area of focus for researchers interested in factors that reduce violence and other behavioral problems in youth. However, little is known regarding the connection between prosocial and antisocial behaviors. A new study by a human development expert found that prosocial behaviors can prevent youth from associating with deviant peers, thereby making the youth less likely to exhibit antisocial or problem behaviors, such as aggression and delinquency.

Education boosts brain function long after school, study shows Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:43 AM PDT Education significantly improves mental functioning in seniors even four decades after finishing school, shows a new study. The study shows that people who attended school for longer periods performed better in terms of cognitive functioning than those who did not. Using data from individuals aged around 60, the researchers found a positive impact of schooling on memory scores. The fact that young people or their parents did not choose whether to go longer to school strongly suggests that schooling is the cause rather than personal characteristics that would affect this choice and could also explain the differences in cognitive function.

Gesturing with hands a powerful tool for children's math learning Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:42 AM PDT Children who use their hands to gesture during a math lesson gain a deep understanding of the problems they are taught, according to new research. Previous research has found that gestures can help children learn. This study in particular was designed to answer whether abstract gesture can support generalization beyond a particular problem and whether abstract gesture is a more effective teaching tool than concrete action.

Tracking neighborhood eating habits to promote healthier diets Posted: 11 Mar 2014 09:42 AM PDT Using checkout grocery data from Montreal neighborhoods as a tool to combat unhealthy food choices, a new study has developed a way for health agencies to track Montreal consumers' food choices, neighborhood by neighborhood. This novel approach could pave the way to better monitoring of consumers' behavior and more targeted efforts to encourage healthier diets.

Cosmetic treatment can open door to bacteria Posted: 11 Mar 2014 07:49 AM PDT Many people have 'fillers' injected into their facial tissue to give them 'bee-stung lips' or to smooth out their wrinkles. Unfortunately, a lot of cosmetic treatment customers experience unpleasant side effects in the form of tender subcutaneous lumps that are difficult to treat and which -- in isolated cases -- have led to lesions that simply will not heal. Research recently published now supports that, despite the highest levels of hygiene, this unwanted side effect is caused by bacterial infection.

Girls born small or underweight twice as likely to be infertile in adulthood Posted: 10 Mar 2014 06:06 PM PDT Girls born unexpectedly small or underweight seem to be twice as likely to have fertility problems in adulthood as those of normal size at birth, suggests new research. "As medical research and care advances, more infants will be born [with low birthweight or small size] and survive, which in turn might influence future need of infertility treatment," the authors conclude.

Social media and science: Don't choose a diet based on what's trending Posted: 10 Mar 2014 09:14 AM PDT Human nutritionist says to look past the social media headline when choosing a diet, because you could be missing important information. "Social media is a great way to get information, but people need a filter and to be educated on what some of the problems may be when looking at health-related information and trying to make judgments or decisions about what might be best for them," the lead author states.

Feeding gut microbiota: Nutrition, probiotics key factors for digestive health Posted: 10 Mar 2014 08:15 AM PDT A healthy and balanced diet, as well as probiotics, have been known to be helpful in preserving gastrointestinal health for quite a long time. But it is only recently that the underlying mechanisms have become somewhat clearer. A rapidly increasing body of knowledge promises to further clarify the effects of our daily food on the gut microbiota and to indicate more targeted applications of probiotics in the near future.

Tricky balancing act: Antibiotics versus the gut microbiota Posted: 10 Mar 2014 08:15 AM PDT Antibiotics are valuable, potentially life-saving tools that have significantly reduced human morbidity and mortality. Unfortunately, antibiotics may also have unintended consequences from their off-target effects that may increase the risk of many long-term conditions. Recent epidemiologic studies have detected a possible link between antibiotic use in childhood and weight gain -- with disruption to the normal gut microbiota considered the most likely cause.

Strong parental networks: Not good for all children Posted: 10 Mar 2014 06:06 AM PDT Parents' social networks have an impact on their children's educational attainment. Researchers have studied the details of how parental networks affect the educational careers of adolescents. Their findings show that close contacts among parents primarily benefit students in affluent communities. In economically depressed communities, by contrast, frequent informal parental exchange tends to disadvantage students by reinforcing social inequities and standing in the way of upward social mobility.

Healthy midlife diet may prevent dementia later Posted: 10 Mar 2014 06:06 AM PDT Healthy dietary choices in midlife may prevent dementia in later years, according a doctoral thesis. The results showed that those who ate the healthiest diet at the average age of 50 had an almost 90 per cent lower risk of dementia in a 14-year follow-up study than those whose diet was the least healthy. The study was the first in the world to investigate the relationship between a healthy diet as early as in midlife and the risk of developing dementia later on.

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