Health & Fitness

Sleep – a lot like eating food – is one of those things we need to live, but seemingly there are plenty of ways to do it wrong.   A new study has weighed into the debate. Looking at UK Biobank data from almost 500,000 adults, researchers conclude that seven hours of sleep per night is the optimal amount for good mental health, wellbeing and cognitive performance, for people in their late 30s to early 70s.   "We identified a nonlinear association between sleep, with approximately seven hours as the optimal sleep duration, and genetic and cognitive factors, brain structure, and mental health as key measures," the researchers write in their new paper. "Longitudinal analysis revealed that both insufficient and excessive sleep duration were significantly associated with a decline in cogni...

An estimated 23 million Americans are suffering from symptoms of “long COVID.” It’s being called the pandemic after the pandemic. Answers about long COVID are still in short supply, and that’s leaving many people struggling to find the medical help they need. Nitza Rochez, 43, said she got COVID in March 2020. She said she’s a healthy person, so she wasn’t worried until one night in April. “I woke up in the middle of the night because of, like, a drumming or pounding sound,” Rochez said. “It was literally the sound of my heart, and I went to the emergency room.” Several doctor visits followed. “I had all of these bizarre symptoms, including trembling legs and arms, cannot move my legs,” Rochez said. “I started walking with a cane.” It’s still unclear why some people develop long COVID. T...

By St. Michael's Hospital May 3, 2022 A new research study finds children with a vegetarian diet have similar growth and nutrition compared to children who eat meat. However, children with a vegetarian diet had increased odds of underweight weight status. A study of almost 9,000 children revealed that those who eat a vegetarian diet had similar measures of growth and nutrition compared to kid’s who eat meat. The research also found that children with a vegetarian diet had increased odds of underweight weight status, emphasizing the need for special care when planning the diets of vegetarian kids. The study was published on May 2, 2022, in the journal Pediatrics and led by researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital of Unity Health Toronto. The findings come as a shift to consuming a plant-ba...

Summary: Children who follow a vegetarian diet have similar measures of growth and nutrition as those who eat meat. However, vegetarian children had higher odds of being underweight compared to those who eat meat. Source: St. Michael’s Hospital A study of nearly 9,000 children found those who eat a vegetarian diet had similar measures of growth and nutrition compared to children who eat meat. The study, published in Pediatrics and led by researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital of Unity Health Toronto, also found that children with a vegetarian diet had higher odds of underweight weight status, emphasizing the need for special care when planning the diets of vegetarian kids. The findings come as a shift to consuming a plant-based diet grows in Canada. In 2019, updates to Canada’s Food Guide...

Every dog is different, and depending on things like their breed, size, age, and health, their particular dietary requirements may also be different, including what you should feed them, and how much.   But what about how often? A new study that assessed over 10,000 dogs offers some startling insights into the apparent links between feeding frequency and canine health – and the key takeaway is definitely food for thought. According to the research, adult dogs that are fed only once per day tend to score significantly better across several indicators of health, compared with dogs that are fed more often. "Controlling for sex, age, breed, and other potential confounders, we found that dogs fed once daily rather than more frequently had lower mean scores on a cognitive dysfunction scale...

Oregon health officials reported nearly 7,000 new coronavirus cases during the week ending Sunday, the fifth consecutive week of increasing cases since the fall of the omicron wave. But the case growth showed a modest decline, with only 30% more cases than the previous week, after two consecutive weeks with about 50% case growth. In other words, cases are still climbing, but not quite as fast as they had been — with a possible plateau seen the past few days. Hospitalizations, which lag behind cases, appear to have started to catch up. Just under 170 people in Oregon are now hospitalized with COVID-19, double the post-omicron trough of 84 occupied beds. About half are considered incidental cases, or hospitalizations where the person came for treatment for a different condition and happe...

At least 10 states — including New York — have reported pediatric hepatitis cases as part of a mysterious international outbreak, officials said. Minnesota has emerged as the latest state to report several severe cases of liver inflammation in children, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. State health agencies in Georgia and New York have reported they were looking into “a handful” of childhood hepatitis cases, NBC News reported. Nine cases were also reported in Alabama, two in North Carolina, one each in Delaware and Louisiana, three in Illinois, four in Wisconsin, six in Tennessee and at least two in Minnesota. At least three young patients have required liver transplants, and one child in Wisconsin died. The World Health ...

Gut with Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes bacteria. Credit: © CMFI/Leon Kokkoliadis A Low-Calorie Diet Alters the Gut Microbiome and Delays Immune Aging A calorie-reduced diet cannot only delay the development of metabolic diseases, but also has a positive effect on the immune system. Researchers have now shown for the first time that this effect is brought about by an altered gut microbiome, which slows down the deterioration of the immune system in old age (immune senescence). The research study has been published in the journal Microbiome. Gut microbiome The gut microbiome is the term used to describe the totality of all microorganisms and intestinal bacteria in our digestive tract. Among other things, it influences the immune system and the metabolism of its host. Around 2 billion p...

"Over the last 20 years we have seen growing popularity of plant-based diets and a changing food environment with more access to plant-based alternatives, however we have not seen the research into the nutritional outcomes of children following vegetarian diets in Canada," said Dr. Jonathon Maguire, the study's lead author and a pediatrician at St. Michael's Hospital of Unity Health Toronto, in a news release. The authors used data from nearly 9,000 children who were between 6 months and 8 years old and had participated in the TARGet Kids! Cohort between 2008 and 2019. TARGet Kids! is a primary care practice-based research network and cohort study in Toronto. Details on the diets these children ate were according to their parents, who answered whether their children were vegetarian (wh...