ScienceDaily: Living Well News

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• Estimating baby's size gets more precise
• 'Gaydar': Are women better at spotting one of their own?
• Toll of trampoline fractures on children is high
• Strategic thinking strengthens intellectual capacity
• Marketing to Internet-savy moms
• Alcohol use in adolescence connected to risky behavior in adulthood
• Fight memory loss with a smile (or chuckle)
• School nutrition, wellness program improves eating habits, lowers BMI
• Diet can predict cognitive decline, researchers say
• Dads bond with baby during 'magic moment' of ultrasound
• Altruistic adolescents less likely to become depressed, study says
• Children living with lone parent are as happy as those with two
• Sleeping more than 8 hours is risk factor for cognitive impairment in over 65s

Estimating baby's size gets more precise Posted: 28 Apr 2014 09:14 AM PDT New research aims to help doctors estimate the size of newborns with a new set of birth weight measurements based on birth records from across the country. Since birth size is often used as one indicator of a baby's health, these new thresholds may be useful for clinicians in making health care decisions. Researchers also may benefit from more precise estimates of birth size when investigating health outcomes at birth and later on in life.

'Gaydar': Are women better at spotting one of their own? Posted: 28 Apr 2014 09:08 AM PDT Previous research has proven the 'gaydar' to be a real phenomenon. Reliable predictions of sexual orientation have been made simply by hearing a voice or seeing a face. A new article asks who has better gaydar? Lesbian women or straight?  The expectation was that lesbians due to their experience of choosing partners would be more tuned in to others orientation.  The authors conducted a study which revealed some thought-provoking insights into who has greater interpersonal sensitivity.

Toll of trampoline fractures on children is high Posted: 28 Apr 2014 09:07 AM PDT Trampoline accidents sent an estimated 288,876 people, most of them children, to hospital emergency departments with broken bones from 2002 to 2011, at a cost of more than $400 million, according to an analysis by researchers. Including all injuries, not just fractures, hospital emergency rooms in the USA received more than 1 million visits from people injured in trampoline accidents during those 10 years, boosting the emergency room bills to just over $1 billion, according to the study.

Strategic thinking strengthens intellectual capacity Posted: 28 Apr 2014 06:42 AM PDT Strategy-based cognitive training has the potential to enhance cognitive performance and spill over to real-life benefit according to a data-driven perspective article. The research-based perspective highlights cognitive, neural and real-life changes measured in randomized clinical trials that compared a gist-reasoning strategy-training program to memory training in populations ranging from teenagers to healthy older adults, individuals with brain injury to those at-risk for Alzheimer's disease.

Marketing to Internet-savy moms Posted: 28 Apr 2014 04:44 AM PDT Moms on the internet should be the focus of those carrying out market research as it turns out that the old word-of-mouth benefits to sales are stronger than ever now that the school gathering places, shops and mother and child groups have been augmented by online social networks aimed at mothers.

Alcohol use in adolescence connected to risky behavior in adulthood Posted: 27 Apr 2014 03:51 PM PDT Teen drinking alters brain chemistry, suggesting early alcohol use has long-term effects on decision making, an animal study demonstrates. The findings could shed light on the development of alcohol and drug addiction. "In humans, the younger you are when you first experience alcohol, the more likely you are to experience problems with alcohol in adulthood," researchers say. The study bolsters the evidence that alcohol exposure early in life can have long-term effects on risk taking and decision making, which can increase a person's risk for substance abuse problems.

Fight memory loss with a smile (or chuckle) Posted: 27 Apr 2014 03:51 PM PDT The stress hormone cortisol can negatively affect memory and learning ability in the elderly. Researchers found that showing a 20-minute funny video to healthy seniors and seniors with diabetes helped them score better on memory tests and significantly reduced their cortisol levels when compared to non-video watchers.

School nutrition, wellness program improves eating habits, lowers BMI Posted: 27 Apr 2014 03:51 PM PDT Percentage of overweight or obese children in test school drops from 56 percent to 38 percent over the course of a single school year thanks to a new nutrition program that fits into Common Core standards. Researchers say the program could be adopted nationally at little cost to schools. "When we designed the study, we anticipated short-term outcomes like kids having more knowledge of nutrition or being able to identify more vegetables. We always had a long-term goal of decreasing BMI, but we didn't anticipate that it would happen in such a short timeframe. We are thrilled," they say.

Diet can predict cognitive decline, researchers say Posted: 27 Apr 2014 09:10 AM PDT Lower dietary consumption of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexanoic acid (DHA) might be risk factors for cognitive decline, researchers say. There is growing evidence that very long chain omega-3 fatty acids are beneficial for maintaining cognitive health. "While more research is needed to determine whether intake of fatty fish such as salmon, tuna and trout can help prevent against cognitive decline, our preliminary data support previous research showing that intake of these types of fish have health benefits," one researcher said.

Dads bond with baby during 'magic moment' of ultrasound Posted: 24 Apr 2014 09:49 AM PDT Seeing their babies' ultrasound images for the first time is a powerful moment for expectant fathers, and could hasten family bonding and provide an opportunity for promoting positive partnering and parenting, according to a new study. Researchers found that the ultrasound experience was an important moment for men, establishing the reality of the coming child, and reassuring them that all was going well with the pregnancy.

Altruistic adolescents less likely to become depressed, study says Posted: 24 Apr 2014 07:28 AM PDT It is better to give than to receive -- at least if you're an adolescent and you enjoy giving, a new study suggests. The study found that 15- and 16-year-olds who find pleasure in pro-social activities, such as giving their money to family members, are less likely to become depressed than those who get a bigger thrill from taking risks or keeping the money for themselves.

Children living with lone parent are as happy as those with two Posted: 24 Apr 2014 07:26 AM PDT Children living with a step-parent or a lone parent are as happy as those living with two biological parents, a study indicates. In a major UK study on wellbeing, researchers analyzed data from 12,877 children aged seven in 2008, and found no significant difference in happiness. Whether the children lived with two biological parents, a step-parent and biological parent, or in a single parent family, made no difference to how they rated their happiness: 64% said they were happy 'sometimes or never', and 36% said they were 'happy all the time'.

Sleeping more than 8 hours is risk factor for cognitive impairment in over 65s Posted: 23 Apr 2014 06:52 AM PDT Sleeping more than 8 hours and less than 6, and the lack of cognitive stimulation such as reading, favors the development of cognitive impairment in people over 65, research suggests. Cognitive impairment, often age-related, is associated with dementia. 35.6 million people worldwide suffer from dementia and given the progressive aging of the population 100 million cases are expected in 2050.

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