The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health
The Star Online: Lifestyle: Health |
- Hours of screen time may not be so bad for kids after all: study
- French health estimates delve into Pill risk
- Saunas linked with lower sperm count in men
| Hours of screen time may not be so bad for kids after all: study Posted: 27 Mar 2013 04:34 AM PDT A new UK study finds that spending hours in front of a TV or computer screen may not be as bad for your child's well-being as previously thought. While researchers still say caution is needed on the amount of time you let you kids watch television or play video games, a study of five-year-olds found that those who watch TV for three more hours a day were only at a slightly higher risk of being antisocial. The new study was carried out by Medical Research Council public health experts at the University of Glasgow. Findings were published March 25 in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood. Parents of more than 11,000 children in the UK Millennium Cohort Study recorded details about their children's day, such as watching television, DVDs or videos, or playing electronic games, at the age of five. They also answered questions about their child's behavior, emotions, social lives, and hyperactivity at the ages of five to seven. Almost two thirds of the children watched TV for one to three hours every day when they were five, with 15 percent watching more than three hours. Family influences, content more important than screen time Initially researchers found that watching more than three hours of TV a day was linked with an increase in behavior problems, including fighting and stealing. However, this association disappeared when they adjusted the data for other family influences. Children who watched three hours or more of TV did show a 1.3 percent rise in behavioral problems when studied at the age of seven. However, this small rise may have disappeared if the content of the television programs had been taken into account, the researchers say. The link was not found with video games. A 2010 study, published in the US journal Pediatrics, found that kids who spend hours each day in front of the TV or games console have more psychological difficulties like problems relating to peers, emotional issues, hyperactivity or conduct challenges, than kids who don't. Children in that study were between the ages of 10 and 11. -- AFPRelaxnews |
| French health estimates delve into Pill risk Posted: 26 Mar 2013 11:56 PM PDT A French drug watchdog on Tuesday released estimates for blood clots linked to birth control pills in the wake of fears that so-called third- and fourth-generation oral contraceptives boost a small risk of dangerous thrombosis. Between 2000 and 2011, contraceptive pills were linked on average to 2,529 annual cases of blood clots, the National Agency for the Safety of Drugs and Health Products (ANSM) said. Of the tally, 1,751 were attributable to third- and fourth generation pills, it said. On average, 20 fatalities annually could be linked to contraceptive use, six of which could be attributed to first- and second-generation pills and 14 to the later-generation pills, the agency said. "The risk of venous thromboembolism applies to the population as a whole, but the risk is low," the ANSM said in a press release. "It increases with age for all women, regardless of whether they use oral contraceptives or not. It is higher for users of third- and fourth-generation contraceptives than for users of first- and second-generation contraceptives," it said, reiterating an earlier judgement. Clots that lodge in the veins can be highly dangerous, potentially causing strokes or heart attacks. The ANSM estimates are based on a statistical model, not on an analysis of individual cases. Smoking and obesity are also associated with higher risk of clots. More than four million women annually took oral contraceptives during the 2001-2011 period, roughly half of whom took first- and second-generation pills and the remainder third- and fourth-generation. The third-generation Pill, introduced in the 1990s, and the fourth generation, approved in the last decade, are formulated to have synthetic versions of the female hormone progestogen, the idea being to skirt side-effects associated with older contraceptives. In January, the health ministry called on doctors to prescribe third- and fourth-generation pills only "in very specific circumstances" and never as a first option. It also urged the European Medicines Agency (EMA) to alter its guidelines accordingly. The EMA said on January 28 that it would study the request. The health ministry also dropped the two later generations of the Pill from the list of medications that are reimbursed under France's national health-insurance programme. The ANSM said that figures for February showed a slump in sales of 34 percent for third- and fourth-generation pills, and a rise of 27 percent for first- and second-generation alternatives, as women made the switch. The storm in France has been triggered in part by the case of a 25-year-old woman, Marion Larat, who was left badly handicapped by a stroke that, in a lawsuit, she attributes to a later-generation pill made by Bayer. A Danish study published in the British Medical Journal in 2011 found women who took one of the newer types of Pill ran twice the risk of developing venous thromboembolism compared to counterparts who used older-generation pills. Compared with non-users of the Pill, the risk of a clot was between three and six times higher. In absolute terms, though, the risk from the newer contraceptives was small, the investigators said. -- AFPRelaxnews |
| Saunas linked with lower sperm count in men Posted: 26 Mar 2013 11:42 PM PDT A small Italian study suggests that men who love soaking up the heat in saunas may have lower sperm counts. Good news, though: the effect may be only temporary, reports LiveScience on March 25. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Padova in Italy, appears in the April print edition of the journal Human Reproduction. Researchers recruited 10 healthy Finnish men in their 30s. All had normal sperm counts at the beginning of the study. The men agreed to spend 15 minutes in a sauna twice a week for three months. Sperm checks after three months found that the men had lower sperm counts, which remained below normal for three months after they stopped visiting saunas altogether. However, after six months sperm counts bounced back to normal. Prior research has linked lower sperm counts with frequent use of hot tubs as well as keeping a laptop on your lap for long periods of time. -- AFPRelaxnews |
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