April 3rd, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News, Opinion, Research, Uncategorized
Tags: .mp3, Baby Monitor Bracelets, Danish, General Medicine, Heart Rate, Henoc Monte, Infant Safety, Jessica Mendoza, Mother, Pediatrics, Primary Care, Sikker, Temperature, Two-Way Communication, Yanko Design
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It’s only a concept, but the Sikker (Danish for “safety”) baby monitor is a great idea by designers Jessica Mendoza and Henoc Monte that will likely have both parents and babies alike going gaga.
The bracelets, charged on a docking station during the day, would allow two-way communication between mother and child, as well as the ability for the mother to monitor the baby’s temperature and heart rate. It would also allow the mother to play .mp3 lullabies to the baby.
If built, they’d probably have to ditch the idea of monitoring temperature, since any readings at the wrist would be poor indicators of core body temperature, but connecting parent and child via bracelet is a good idea that has promise, and it’d be great to see this built.
More from Yanko Design: Sikker is for Safety

*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
April 3rd, 2010 by Nancy Brown, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Auto Accidents, Car Crashes, Cellphones While Driving, Deaths, Driving Laws, Emergency Medicine, General Medicine, Government Statistics, Instant Messaging While Driving, Primary Care, Road Conditions, Safe Roads, Teen Driver Safety, Texting While Driving, U.S. News & World Report
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The April issue of U.S. News & World Report will carry a story about the best states for teen drivers as part of a campaign to raise awareness for teen driver safety. The ratings are based on state driving laws and road conditions to determine how much a state is doing to promote safe roads, as well as government statistics on teen driving.
The best states for teen drivers are lead by these top ten (I feel like Letterman):
District of Columbia, California, Colorado, Maryland, Illinois, New Jersey, Oregon, Minnesota, Utah, and Washington.
Car crashes kill more teens each year than anything else. Read more »
This post, The Best States For Teen Drivers, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Nancy Brown, Ph.D..
April 2nd, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Brain Activity, Magnets, MIT, Moral Conclusions, Moral Judgment, Moral Thought, MRI, Neuroscience, Right Temporo-Patietal Junction, TMS, TPJ, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
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Research scientists at MIT have been studying the right temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) region of the brain that seems to be involved in judging the behavior of other people. With the help of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) applied to the region, they were able to affect the moral conclusions that people reached when analyzing the actions of others.
From MIT news office:
The researchers used a noninvasive technique known as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to selectively interfere with brain activity in the right TPJ. A magnetic field applied to a small area of the skull creates weak electric currents that impede nearby brain cells’ ability to fire normally, but the effect is only temporary.
In one experiment, volunteers were exposed to TMS for 25 minutes before taking a test in which they read a series of scenarios and made moral judgments of characters’ actions on a scale of one (absolutely forbidden) to seven (absolutely permissible). Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
April 2nd, 2010 by DaveMunger in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Humor, Opinion, Research, True Stories
Tags: Diet, Exercise, Fad Diets, Fit, Fitness, General Medicine, Health Benefits, Healthy, Kinesiology, Physical Activity, Physiology, Primary Care, Quality of Life, Sedentary Lifestyle, Weight Loss
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I consider myself a relatively fit person. Of course, “relatively” is still relative. I try to watch what I eat. I usually exercise five days a week. Heck, I’ve even run a couple half-marathons. But the rest of my days are pretty much sedentary. I sit in a climate-controlled office staring at my computer screen. I make dinner in my highly-automated kitchen. After dinner I sit in the living room sipping wine and watching TV or talking to Greta. Then I go to bed and start the process over again.
That’s not a whole lot of activity for a creature that evolved for endurance. Over a 50 mile course, a race between a man and a horse can be quite competitive. Millions of people all over the world do hard manual labor day in and day out. But millions of others don’t set aside any time for exercise. In my half-marathons, I’ve finished in the top half of competitors, so compared to a lot of people, I must be doing something right. Right? Or do my sedentary days outweigh my occasional bursts of activity? I exercise an average of 4 hours per week. That’s less than 4 percent of my total waking time. Is that really enough to stay fit? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Daily Monthly*
April 1st, 2010 by Nancy Brown, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Opinion, Research
Tags: Diet and Exercise, General Medicine, High Cholesterol, kids, LDL, Middle School Youth, Obese, Obesity, Overweight, Pediatrics, Physical Activity, Primary Care, School Lunch, Screen Hours, Sports, University of Michigan
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Research from the University of Michigan suggests that say one in three middle school youth who regularly eat school lunches are obese or overweight. They are also more likely to have higher cholesterol levels than kids who bring lunches from home.
The study included 1,076 middle school students who completed questionnaires about what they ate and how much physical activity they got as well as how many screen hours they logged each day.
Compared with kids who ate school lunches, kids who brought lunches from home were:
– Less likely to be overweight or obese (25% vs 38%)
– Less likely to eat two or more servings of fatty meats like fried chicken or hot dogs daily (2% vs. 6%)
– Less likely to drink two or more sugary drinks a day (7% vs. 19%)
– More likely to eat at least two servings a day of fruit (49% vs. 33%)
– More likely to eat at least two servings a day of vegetables (50% vs. 40%)
– Had lower levels of LDL (the bad cholesterol) Read more »
This post, Kids Who Eat School Lunch Are Less Healthy In General, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Nancy Brown, Ph.D..