Extracts from the "Other" Journals relating to Children, Youth and
Families
in the fields of health, substance abuse, education, psychology, science
...
January 2008
Cannabis bigger cancer risk than cigarettes: study
Smoking a joint is equivalent to 20 cigarettes in terms of lung cancer risk, scientists in New Zealand have found, as they warned of an "epidemic" of lung cancers linked to cannabis. Studies in the past have demonstrated that cannabis can cause cancer, but few have established a strong link between cannabis use and the actual incidence of lung cancer.
In an article published in the European Respiratory Journal, the scientists said cannabis could be expected to harm the airways more than tobacco as its smoke contained twice the level of carcinogens, such as polyaromatic hydrocarbons, compared with tobacco cigarettes.
The method of smoking also increases the risk, since joints are typically smoked without a proper filter and almost to the very tip, which increases the amount of smoke inhaled. The cannabis smoker inhales more deeply and for longer, facilitating the deposition of carcinogens in the airways.
"Cannabis smokers end up with five times more carbon monoxide in their bloodstream (than tobacco smokers)," team leader Richard Beasley, at the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, said in a telephone interview. "There are higher concentrations of carcinogens in cannabis smoke ... what is intriguing to us is there is so little work done on cannabis when there is so much done on tobacco."
The researchers interviewed 79 lung cancer patients and sought to identify the main risk factors for the disease, such as smoking, family history and occupation. The patients were questioned about alcohol and cannabis consumption. In this high-exposure group, lung cancer risk rose by 5.7 times for patients who smoked more than a joint a day for 10 years, or two joints a day for 5 years, after adjusting for other variables, including cigarette smoking.
"While our study covers a relatively small group, it shows clearly that long-term cannabis smoking increases lung cancer risk," wrote Beaseley. "Cannabis use could already be responsible for one in 20 lung cancers diagnosed in New Zealand," he added.
"In the near future we may see an 'epidemic' of lung cancers connected with this new carcinogen. And the future risk probably applies to many other countries, where increasing use of cannabis among young adults and adolescents is becoming a major public health problem."
Tan Ee Lyn
29 January 2008
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CANADA
Sports should be part of more equal, fair society
A controversial court ruling brought gender equality to centre ice again this week. Last Monday, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Joan McKelvey upheld a human rights tribunal ruling that found Amy and Jesse Pasternak were discriminated against when they were denied the chance to try out for the West Kildonan Collegiate boys' hockey team in 2004.
McKelvey denied the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association's (MHSAA) appeal of the matter to agree the twin sisters should not have been denied tryouts on the basis of gender. And, in theory, she's absolutely right.
By definition, girls and boys should be able to compete for spots on the same teams, while only those most physically fit, skilled and disciplined actually deserve to become members. True gender equality implies equal, not different, opportunities.
To prevent girls or boys from trying out for a high school team based on anatomy alone could deny one or both genders the chance to participate in sports at a level that matches their ability. In practice, however, there are plenty of oft-repeated concerns raised as to why girls and boys shouldn't mix on the hockey rink. Some argue the physical intensity and aggression of contact sports like hockey make it dangerous for girls to play with the boys. But if coaches remain free to use the same standard – such as physical strength, ability, size and skill – to choose players, this concern appears to be grounded more in fear than reality.
If girls are seriously injured, that may justify creating new rules or restrictions. This certainly wouldn't be the first time limits or laws were created to better protect high school kids.
Perhaps the most popular rebuke of the court ruling is that most boys are naturally stronger and better hockey players than girls.
Gender equality
These critics argue the ruling hailed as a triumph for gender
equality would actually mark the first step toward the elimination of
girls' teams. They say opening up all high school teams to both genders
would mean boys could qualify for all of the positions on traditional
boys' leagues, plus beat out girls for their previously reserved "girls
team" spots.
Yet if the firestorm of response this appeal triggered continues, there's very little chance of that happening anytime in the near future. That's because in nearly every argument against the decision, there are sexist assumptions made.
No matter how far we believe we've come toward eliminating sexism, I doubt any Winnipegger would struggle to remember the last time they heard the insult "you throw like a girl" aimed at a boy or man. And there's no shortage of men who will insist sports is a "guy thing," better left protected from any change, let alone the addition of a dreaded co-ed league.
The reluctance to recognize the talent and ambition of female athletes may be one reason why it took so long to establish girls' hockey leagues in the first place. That gap left many of Canada's best female hockey players, including some who went on to compete internationally, to play on boys' teams in their youth.
Perhaps it's the fear, not the actual likelihood, of boys flocking to try out for girls' teams that drives the intensity behind the reaction to each Pasternak ruling.
Girls' teams tryout
Within a week after the tribunal ruling that agreed with their
claim back in 2006, the MHSAA reported six or more boys had sought
information about trying out for girls' teams. That hardly indicates a
mass of male athletes instantly flocked to skate with their female
classmates.
And at this point, the MHSAA does not even know exactly what impact the ruling will have on other high school sports. It seems a little premature to assume males will take over all girls' sports teams in high school before we know how the decision will resonate with players, and if many high school students are even interested in playing with the opposite gender.
This ruling may not be convenient, easy to implement, or even relevant for some female athletes who, as previous feedback to the Winnipeg Sun shows, are content to play among their female classmates. But as a society, if we fail to take such risks and give change even the slightest chance, we become stuck with a blindly accepted status quo.
It's fair to expect some boys will try out for girls' teams and some will make the cut. As long as boys' teams remain seen as the sole way to reach the toughest hockey competition, isn't it worth offering both genders a chance to experience that opportunity?
We've come a long way toward creating a more equal, fair society. Shouldn't sports be part of that?
Joyanne Pursaga
27 January 2008
http://winnipegsun.com/News/Columnists/Pursaga_Joyanne/2008/01/27/4795982-sun.html
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CANADA
Study says Inuit lifespans actually shrinking as average lifespans increase
In a country where people live longer and longer, a groundbreaking study of life expectancy trends in the Arctic suggests Inuit lives are actually getting shorter. A new Statistics Canada study indicates that between 1989 and 2003, lifespans in the Inuit-inhabited regions across the North declined by nearly a year, from 67.8 years to 66.9 years.
Although that difference is narrow, the decline is likely real, said study author Russell Wilkins. "There was probably somewhat of a decrease," he said. "It's not cheerful."
During that time, life expectancy for the average Canadian increased by two years. That means by 2003, an Inuk could expect to die a full 12 years sooner than his average fellow citizen - a gap that grows to 15 years when non-aboriginal people living in the Arctic are factored out. Inuit life expectancy is even six years lower than non-Inuit aboriginal Canadians.
"We're at the same as other Canadians were in 1946," said Mary Simon, president Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Canada's national Inuit group. "We didn't even have medicare then. "Here in 2001 we're at the same rate. It's pretty shocking."
The study pegged life expectancy for Canadian Inuit at about the same level as the average person in a developing nation such as the Dominican Republic or Egypt. Wilkins said the decline has come even as other health indicators such as infant mortality begin to catch up to Canadian norms, although Inuit newborns in 2003 were still about four times more likely to die than the national average. "One of the main drivers of life expectancy is deaths among young people - suicides, accidents and injuries," said Kue Young, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Toronto.
Quality and accessibility of health care in remote regions is also a factor, Young said. But so are the social circumstances of such communities. "More doctors and more hospitals aren't going to change that," he said. "It's really got a lot to do with the social environment. That's got a lot to do with young people dying at an excessive rate."
Simon doesn't deny that social dysfunction in the North is a major reason for a suicide rate 11 times the national average. But the way to attack that, she says, is through strategic spending on specific issues from housing to education.
"If we keep generalizing the whole thing, we're not going to solve it," she said. "If we lacked mental health services in southern Canada the way we do in the North, there would be a total uproar."
Wilkins said the next step of his research is to figure out why life expectancy has stalled or declined. He'll look at causes of death from suicide to respiratory disease to accidents and violent death. His current study also broke down life expectancy trends for the different Inuit areas, although those figures were less reliable because of smaller sample sizes.
Arctic Quebec had the lowest life expectancy at 62.8 years in 2003, as well as the biggest drop at 3.7 years. Labrador came next, at 65.3 years with a 1.4-year drop in lifespan. Nunavut's figure was 68.2 years. It was the only area to register a gain in lifespan, at 1.3 years. Life expectancy was highest in the northern Northwest Territories at 70.2 years, although that was 2.9 years less than it was in 1989.
"I feel a real sense of frustration," said Simon. "I try to be a real patient person and I practise patience every day. But there are times like today when I feel we are not moving forward."
24 January 2008
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iK3apj8hQQLnNM2x7QIuH1xPlabw
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Teen risk factors for schizophrenia identified
Five key factors can help predict whether at-risk young people will go on to develop schizophrenia, researchers have found. The findings show that it is "feasible" to identify a person's risk of schizophrenia as accurately as gauging his or her risk of heart disease or diabetes, and raise the possibility of preventing psychotic illness, Dr. Tyrone D. Cannon of the University of California, Los Angeles and colleagues say.
The earlier schizophrenia is identified and treated, the less damaging its course, they note in the Archives of General Psychiatry. However, current methods designed to predict schizophrenia risk are imprecise, they point out.
Cannon and his team followed 291 teenagers considered to be at high risk for developing schizophrenia for two-and-a-half years to look for a more accurate predictive technique. All of the study participants had been diagnosed with prodromal syndrome for schizophrenia, meaning they had non-specific symptoms such as paranoia, disorganized communication, and unusual thoughts that could signal the onset of full-blown disease.
Thirty-five percent of the study participants developed schizophrenia during the study. Five characteristics identified at the study's outset sharply increased the likelihood that a teen would develop the disease: a genetic risk for schizophrenia combined with recent decline in function; higher levels of unusual thought content; more suspicion/paranoia; more social impairment; and past or current substance abuse.
Among people with two or three of these characteristics, 68 percent to 80 percent developed schizophrenia during the course of the study, the researchers report.
Cannon and his colleagues caution that the people in their study were seeking treatment, so the results can't be applied to the general population. Nevertheless, they say their findings suggest that the first two-and-a-half years after a diagnosis of prodromal syndrome offer "a critical window of opportunity" for identifying brain changes that may lead to psychosis, and for intervening to slow or even prevent the development of psychosis and disability.
In an editorial accompanying the study, Dr. Patrick D. McGorry of the University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and colleagues write that large clinical trials are now needed to investigate early treatment of schizophrenia. "While there are risks in the endeavor to reshape the early course of schizophrenia and related psychoses, it is now within our grasp," they conclude.
SOURCE: Archives of General Psychiatry, January 2008.
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UK
Crime is falling? Tell that to our children
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was right about one thing yesterday, when she said she would be too afraid to walk around Hackney in east London after midnight. That was the most honest and sensible statement from a Home Secretary about crime in recent years. She then went and spoiled it by claiming that crime had fallen, that people were safer than they have been for 10 or 20 years, and that once everyone was convinced of this "truth", we would praise New Labour for making us all so much more secure.
Which planet is she on? The problem is that government ministers, when they make these fatuous statements, rely upon official statistics which tell them that crime has fallen by a record amount in the past 10 years and that the likelihood of becoming a victim is the lowest since 1981. Back here on Earth, the rest of us know that this is only so much baloney because we rely upon what we see with our own eyes.
Ministers, of course, cannot do that because they spend most of their time in official cars and, in Miss Smith's case, accompanied by a couple of Special Branch officers. I suspect most of us would happily buy a kebab in a late-night shop in Peckham, south London (as we are assured she did) if we had armed protection; but we would not dream of it if we were on our own.
And why is that? It is because we know that there is a very strong possibility that we might be attacked, abused or threatened, if we were unlucky enough to be there at the wrong time, when the wrong people walk in, just as so many decent, law-abiding people have found to their appalling cost in recent weeks.
A haunting image from the trial of the thugs who killed Garry Newlove, the father kicked to death for remonstrating with drunken yobs, was the smirk on the face of Adam Swellings, one of his murderers, as he was led away by two burly police officers. It was the authentic look of the feral youth who despises all authority and who, far from feeling any shame for his action, or even fear for his future, revels in the notoriety it has brought him.
If, as Miss Smith averred yesterday, crime is at its lowest level for 20 years, how is that she is proposing to install metal detectors at school gates to stop pupils carrying knives into the classrooms, as though parts of Britain were like south-west Los Angeles? Some schools in inner London already have a police officer permanently stationed there because of the threat posed by a small number of violent hooligans to most of the other pupils.
If crime has fallen, why are the prisons so full that courts are under pressure to send fewer offenders to jail in order to relieve the overcrowding, thereby ensuring criminals who should be behind bars are out and about and free to assault, rob and burgle?
What Miss Smith means is that crime measured by the British Crime Survey has fallen; and while many statisticians claim this to be the best measure of offending, it appears to bear little resemblance to reality. Anyone who has teenage sons in London will have heard their stories of assault, threats and muggings on a startlingly regular basis.
When I was young, there were yobs - skinheads in those days - who would beat you up if they had the chance. But I never recall fearing that I would be mugged at knife-point.
Just before Christmas, the daughter of a friend was brutally assaulted - and she and her girlfriend hospitalised - when they were attacked by two other girls in the lavatory of a club in the northern city where they are at university. Imagine it: stomped and kicked by two other girls. That was unheard of a few years ago. Needless to say, they are now too frightened to venture out at all, let alone walk around Hackney after midnight.
There are, as the Bishop of Rochester said a week or so ago, no-go areas in this country. But they are not religious ones. They are the town centres on a Friday and Saturday night which few decent people any longer want to visit. There have always been parts of our inner cities where nobody in their right mind would venture, pubs that were out of bounds to anyone "not from around here". But it is a relatively recent phenomenon to find the centres of market towns or suburban high streets in the exclusive hands of the yobs, with bouncers at the doors of every pub.
We know that violent crime, general boorishness and intimidatory behaviour is on the increase because we witness it. Indeed, one had always assumed the reason why Labour has introduced so many criminal justice measures in recent years, was that they recognised it, too. Yet they cannot bring themselves to admit it because it suggests all that vast amount of legislation has been a waste of time, as indeed most of it has.
So, when figures show that more young offenders are being convicted or cautioned, this is attributed to "bringing more to justice", rather than to an increase in criminality. When police statistics show an increase in violence, this is because offences that would not once have been counted are now included in the figures, such as aggressive behaviour, pushing or shoving. Most people would conclude that it was because violent crime was going up. Another manifestation of this denial is to equate convictions with offences. The lout who is caught for an assault will almost certainly have carried out dozens for which he was never brought to book.
This week, the Association of Chief Police Officers will publish a strategy that will set out four steps for tackling youth crime - engaging with young people, supporting child victims and witnesses, helping those who may turn to crime, and responding to offences. Yet the most important thing that these chief police officers could do is to ensure there are far more bobbies on the streets and that some semblance of order and authority is restored. Otherwise all the new strategies, laws and task forces will make not a scrap of difference.
Philip Johnston
21 January 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/01/21/do2102.xml
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Study children and cell phones, experts advise
Researchers should study more children and pregnant women in trying to figure out if cell phones or other wireless devices could damage health, the U.S. National Research Council advised on Thursday.
A few studies have indicated a possible link between mobile telephone use and brain tumors, although far more show no connection. But because wireless devices have become almost ubiquitous, researchers wants to ensure their safety.
The Food and Drug Administration asked the National Research Council to recommend some future lines of study. The Council, which advises Congress and the federal government on scientific matters, held a meeting of experts including engineers and biologists and has now released the full report.
Most studies have looked only at short-term effects on healthy adults, the report said. More study needs to be done on multiple, long-term, low-intensity radiofrequency (RF) exposure, the report said.
"Measuring the amount of RF energy received by juveniles, children, pregnant women, and fetuses from wireless devices and RF base station antennas could help define exposure ranges for various populations," the council said in a statement. "Although it is unknown whether children are more susceptible to RF exposure, they may be at increased risk because of their developing organ and tissue systems," it added.
"Additionally, Specific Absorption Rates for children are likely to be higher than for adults, because exposure wavelength is closer to the whole-body resonance frequency for shorter individuals."
The report also notes that children today will experience a longer period of RF field exposure from mobile phones than adults, because they will most likely start using them at an early age.
Researchers should also analyze the different types of antennas for the amount of RF energy they deliver to different parts of the body.
Maggie Fox
17 January 2008
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Finding emo: It eludes a real definition
They might be your kids. For sure, they know all about emo and you do not. It is a well-known and common international youth subculture, a celebration of depression that, so far, is virtually invisible to most adults. "For me, the most disturbing part of this emo ' phenomenon is the whole I hate my life, I want to die ' part, " says Chelli Riddiough, a junior at Madison West High School. "The I want to cut myself ' joke that 's not really a joke at all. Thanks to the rejection of forthright emotions, teenage depression is being dismissed as just being emo. "
Emo is a kind of music, and a kind of fashion style, and above all a kind of demeanor. It 's so well known among young people that they already see it as cliche. It 's verbal shorthand for "emotional. " If the term had been current a generation ago, humorous depressives such as Charlie Brown and Woody Allen would have been labeled emo. Except that today it 's not funny.
"I have a lot of friends that are truly emo, " says Alex Policastro, a 17-year-old student at the Madison Area Technical College. "I think emos are people that have had a tough life, or just a tough time, and either need help or should be helped. "
Searching for emo
Finding emo is rough, if you 're older. On the one hand, it 's
so well known that if you run "emo " on the Google search engine, you
'll find 50.3 million listings. Compare that to, for example, 8.16
million for "Jesus Christ " or 1.94 million for "bill of rights. " That
's perhaps not surprising; according to a survey conducted by the Pew
Internet and American Life Project, the average age of the most active
creators of Internet-content is 25. Emo seems to skew far younger than
that, reaching down even into middle school.
On the other hand, we asked adults if they knew what emo was. We asked school psychologists, area high school and middle school counseling staffs, experts at the UW-Madison School of Education, and the Madison-based Briarpatch youth crisis intervention service. Some had heard of emo. No one could even define it.
So what is emo?
"Oftentimes, emo is used as a derogatory term, a sort of grow
up and grow out of it ' statement, " says Riddiough. "For the most part,
the term is typified as pessimistic, angsty, self-injurious and even
suicidal. And sometimes homosexual, since male and female emo styles are
pretty much the same. "
"I don't know if I 'd really classify myself as emo, " says Jennifer Wilson, age 21, a Madison sales associate. But others have called her emo. "It 's kind of one of those things that outsiders label others as, if that makes sense. Like, a football player wouldn 't label himself as a jock. ' "
"I have been called emo before, " says Policastro. "I am not emo. If you want, you can categorize me as punk, maybe. "
Says Riddiough, "Nobody I know would gladly admit to being emo. It 's become such a joking term, such an insult, even, that few would seriously describe themselves as such. " So despised is emo that one contributor to Yahoo Answers, an advice Web site, confessed to cutting himself. But that wasn't the problem. The problem was that friends labeled him emo as a result. He plaintively complained, "I don 't get why ur emo if u cut. It 's stupid I think. "
Emo as a demeanor apparently arose in America. It spread via the Internet to Europe a few years ago. There, at least, it has begun to receive press attention. London 's Daily Mail reported that "teenagers are less equipped to manage strong emotions and a cult of suicide could have real and horrible consequences. " Kathimerini, a Greek newspaper, warns that psychologists there are concerned. In Australia, according to the University of Queensland 's Newspace, "Emo is the new vogue. "
A musical start
At first, emo was just music. "I believe emo came out of the
hardcore scene - metal plus punk, " says Jennifer Hanrahan, a host and
DJ at the UW-Madison student radio station WSUM. "However, by the 2000s,
emo had become more of a fashion style rather than a musical genre. "
Hanrahan says that acts such as Fall Out Boy, Dashboard Confessional and My Chemical Romance all became known as emo, even though one could argue that there were differences in their music. Another famous emo band is the Brooklyn-based Rainer Maria, which started in Madison. The band has not responded to requests for comment. Like individuals labeled emo, "The bands who are commonly called emo don't appreciate the term, " says Hanrahan.
Still, emo as music was relatively non-threatening, and it therefore played on top 40-radio stations and music television channels, "and so became popular with white middle to upper-class pre-teens and teens, " Hanrahan says. It became commercial. "Due to its young and affluent audience, emo began to get a bad rap with the wider musical public, whether deservedly or not I can't quite say. " The music defined the message, and the message came to define a more or less uniform androgynous fashion sense. "Nowadays, emo is considered as a white teen wearing tight black jeans, heavy mascara, and a floppy hairstyle, " says Hanrahan. Every emo Web site agrees with the stereotyped portrait: bangs over one or both eyes, Converse Chuck Taylor sneakers and band T-shirts are signature emo traits. With the crystallization of outward style came a defined demeanor.
There has been teen angst as long as there have been teens, of course. We just keep coming up with different names for it; Romeo 's Juliet was only 13, after all. Before emo there were the black-clad "goths, " whose clothes and black and white make-up resembled that of television 's "The Addams Family. " Emo is very different. "From what I 've observed, Goth is about being angry and trying to be different, " says Riddiough. "It 's about rebelling and, yes, wearing black. Emo is about being sad and emotionally weak. "
The emo world
If you 're an outsider, emo is, above all, easy to ridicule.
You can visit www.TheEmoQuiz.com ( "The glass is: a) Half empty, b) Half
full, c) Shattered in a million sharp pieces, d) Full of blood "). There
are also online cartoons, mocking emo in an artistic style resembling
the big sad-eyed kitten posters of the 1960s. One shows a weeping young
man, and announces, "Emo is just an excuse for boys to act like girls. "
Another shows an emo kid working on a poem, asking another emo kid,
"What rhymes with razor blade? ". Another common Internet joke is, "I
wish my lawn were emo, so it would cut itself. "
"As for the cutting thing, I don 't cut myself, " says Wilson. "I never have. I know people who have cut themselves that wouldn't be classified as emo. ' I know people who are emo that don't cut themselves. I think that it 's more of a stereotype than a fact. I wouldn't say there isn't any direct correlation, but then again the whole emo thing ' is a huge stereotype anyway. "
Still, sometimes emo can be a call for help. "I have a male friend who used to be extremely emo, " says Wilson. "I once called him to ask what he was up to. He said, I 'm laying on the floor of my dark, cold basement listening to depressing music. I know, I 'm emo. ' "
"From my understanding, emo means emotionally disturbed, ' " notes Policastro. "I am trying to spread help to people who need it. "
Given that emo is most often an unfair stereotype label applied by others, is it necessarily bad? "I think I definitely have certain emo characteristics, but overall, I 'm a happy person, " says Wilson. "The things that I would say about myself that are similar (to emo) are the fact that I love to express myself through things like art, writing, fashion and music. I dress a little less conservatively. I guess if you're going by what emo ' is short for, emotional, ' then I suppose that could be true too. Everyone 's emotional. Maybe we're all a little emo. "
Riddiough agrees. "It means the manifestation of sadness and pain, " she says. "Everybody feels it. Everybody is emo. "
Jay Rath
11 January 2008
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/entertainment/266804&ntpid=2
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Regular Family Meals Lower Risk Of Eating Disorders Among Adolescent Girls
An adolescent girl who regularly has family meals is less likely to suffer and go on to suffer from an eating disorder, or consume laxatives, diet pills, or take some extreme measure to control her weight, according to an article in Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine (JAMA/Archives).
The incidence of binge eating and self-induced vomiting is generally higher as a youth progresses from adolescence to adulthood, explain the authors. "Disordered eating behaviors are associated with a number of harmful behavioral, physical and psychological consequences, including poorer dietary quality, weight gain and obesity onset, depressive symptoms and the onset of eating disorders. Thus, it is important to identify strategies for the prevention of disordered eating behaviors."
Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and team looked at 2,516 adolescent children from 31 Minnesota schools. The children completed two surveys - one in the classroom in 1999, and another one that was mailed to them in 2004. They were asked how frequently they ate with their families, what their BMI (body mass index) was, how connected they felt with their family, and their eating behaviors.
Teenage girls who ate with their families at least five times each week in 1999 were substantially less likely to report using extreme measures, such as using diuretics or making themselves vomit to control their weight in 2004, this was despite such factors as sociodemographics, BMI and family connectedness.
The reasons for the sex difference are unclear, the authors wrote. "Perhaps boys who engage in regular family meals are different in some way that increases their risk for disordered eating behaviors. There is also the possibility that adolescent boys and girls have different experiences at family meals. For example, girls may have more involvement in food preparation and other food-related tasks, which may play a protective role in the development of disordered eating behaviors. Finally, family meals may offer more benefits to adolescent girls, who may be more sensitive to and likely to be influenced by interpersonal and familial relationships than are adolescent boys."
The findings that emanated from this and previous studies should encourage us to find ways of helping families eat meals together, the authors say. "Health care professionals have an important role to play in reinforcing the benefits of family meals, helping families set realistic goals for increasing family meal frequency given schedules of adolescents and their parents, exploring ways to enhance the atmosphere at family meals with adolescents and discussing strategies for creating healthful and easy-to-prepare family meals," they conclude. "Schools and community organizations should also be encouraged to make it easier for families to have shared mealtimes on a regular basis."
Source: Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent
Medicine
9 January 2008
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/93480.php
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Britain has worst underage sex rates
More children are having sex in Britain than in any other country in Europe, according to World Health Organisation figures published on Monday. Girls outstrip boys in the numbers prepared to have sex aged 15 or younger - leading to 20 of them getting pregnant each day.
The spiralling level of teenage pregnancy not only robs young people of their childhoods but contributes to a vicious circle of family break-up, say experts.
Four out of 10 girls in England have underage sex - more than in any other European country. English girls were followed by Welsh girls - 39 per cent of whom had underage sex. Third highest was Scotland with 34.1 per cent of girls. The number of boys in Britain having underage sex is 34.9 per cent and higher than every other European country apart from the Ukraine with 47.1 per cent. And more than 15 per cent of the teenagers in England fail to use contraception.
The report, to be published in the journal Archives of Paediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, highlights the continued failure of Labour's pledge to halve pregnancies among 16- and 17-year-olds by 2010. Last week, figures by the Department for Children, Schools and Families revealed underage pregnancies rose by four per cent to 7,462 in 2005.
England and Wales now have the highest birth rates for under-16s in western Europe. In some areas, nearly one schoolgirl in every 50 is falling pregnant.
In response, the Government has announced a
raft of measures, including personal contraception counsellors to stop
teenage mothers from getting pregnant again. But Dr Adrian Rogers,
former chairman of the Conservative Family Institute, said it was not
enough and called on the Government to halt its policies which told
children that "if you couldn't be good, be careful".
Aislinn Simpson
7 January 2008
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/07/nsex207.xml
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Drug addiction genes identified
Scientists in China have identified about 400 genes that appear to make some people more easily addicted to drugs, opening the way for more effective therapies and addiction control. Experts believe genetic factors account for up to 60 percent of a person's vulnerability to drug addiction, with environmental factors accounting for the remainder.
The researchers focused on four addictive substances -- cocaine, opiate, alcohol and nicotine -- and mapped out five main routes, or "molecular pathways", that lead to addiction, they wrote in the journal PLoS Computational Biology.
Figuring out pathways are important in the study of complex diseases as they narrow down the genes and proteins involved. In diseases such as cancer, pathways help doctors make more accurate diagnoses and predictions of the course of the disease.
For drug addiction, the researchers said: "These common pathways may underlie shared rewarding and response mechanisms and may be targets for effective treatments for a wide range of addictive disorders."
The researchers trawled through more than 1,000 peer-reviewed medical publications that linked genes and chromosome regions to drug addiction over the past 30 years and assembled a list of 1,500 addiction-related genes. Some of these genes turned up more frequently than others in the pathways and scientists narrowed the list to 396.
8 January 2008
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Americans opt for healthy eating, not diets
Dieting has fallen out of favor while trying to eat more healthfully is in, a marketing research firm that tracks what Americans consume said on Friday.
Twenty-nine percent of women and 19 percent of men are on diets, based on the responses of 26,000 American adults, compared to 10 years ago when 35 percent of women and 23 percent of men said they were dieting, according to Port Washington, New York-based NPD Group Inc.
"The problem with diets is most people feel deprived, or they're disappointed with the results. Of course, results will come if you stick with it," NPD Vice President Harry Balzer said in a telephone interview. "But people see dieting as not a long-term healthful way to live."
Improving overall health was the prime motivation for 68 percent of those on a diet, according to the survey, which was sponsored by the Milk Processor Education Program, promoter of the "Got Milk?" advertising campaign. "We've become more accepting of our weight and the most important thing is, are you healthy?" Balzer said.
The most popular diet was one dieters made up for themselves -- helped by more detailed nutritional labels on packaged foods and a plethora of guides to slimming down. One-third of the dieters in NPD's surveys said they had formulated their own approach, usually through portion control, and 9 percent subscribed to an "extreme diet" calling for either severe calorie reductions or eliminating a food group such as carbohydrates.
Adults' desire to lose weight -- specifically, 20 pounds (9 kg) in NPD's surveys -- is one thing that has not shifted much since topping out in 2001 at around 60 percent, Balzer said. The portion of U.S. adults who are overweight has plateaued at around 62 percent, he noted.
Eight out of 10 dieters said their goal was both to lose weight and improve their health -- a sign of growing acceptance that a healthy weight may not equate to slimness. The percentage of adults who viewed an overweight person as unattractive has dropped to 25 percent from more than 50 percent in past decades, Balzer said.
Despite the penchant for healthier eating, many Americans still opt for convenience, as NPD's surveys and the array of fast-food restaurants in many communities showed, Balzer said. "The problem with fresh vegetables is they're not easy," he said. "Most important is how much does it cost and how easy it is to get it? A secondary factor is how healthy is it?"
Andrew Stein
4 January 2008