The importance of early reading to children

Nicolette Schleisman

A new message for parents, you cannot start reading to your children too early. That message Tuesday from the people who care for our children, pediatricians.

The new guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests parents should read aloud to their children every day, starting in infancy.

“He’s read to every single night,” said Adriane Evans, a mother.

Adriane Evans is a first time mom. She and her husband read to Liam, their two-year-old, every night and during the day.

“It’s incredibly important. That’s a part of our nighttime routine that we never skip,” said Evans.

Electronic cigarettes makers under fire in Senate

Jennifer C. Kerr / AP

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers are questioning e-cigarette makers about whether they're trying to hook youngsters with fruity, fun-sounding flavors such as "cherry crush."

Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller tells e-cigarette makers that the last thing anyone should want to do is encourage young people to start using a new nicotine delivery product.

The presidents of two companies, blu eCigs and NJoy, insist that they don't target young people and that their products are a critical alternative for people desperate to quit traditional cigarettes.

Low vitamin D ups the chance of premature death

NVONews Bureau

If a latest study is to be believed there is a direct link between premature death and low level of vitamin D. Low vitamin D ups the chance of premature death, the study concludes.

The study had a huge number of participants and so there must be some truth into the finding and the analysis by researchers.

The study that has been published in the top medical journal, American Journal of Public Health was conducted by doctors and researchers belonging to University of California-San Diego.

According to the study the researchers reviewed as many as 32 studies that analyzed participants’ blood levels of vitamin D and mortality rates. All the three studies put together had around 566,583 participants belonging to more than a dozen nations.

High Protein Diets

wjhg.com

If you're eating a diet that is high in protein you may be reducing your risk of stroke in the process.

A new study out of china finds diets higher in protein, especially from fish, may cut your stroke risk by as much as 20 percent.

Nanjing University School researchers analyzed seven studies involving more than 250,000 people.

They found that overall, the participants with the highest amount of protein in their diets were 20 percent less likely to develop a stroke than those with the lowest amount.

"We think that the way it works is not just by improving your cholesterol profiles, which is just one component because you get omega-3 fatty acids from fish, for example, but also because it may lower your blood pressure and blood pressure is a major risk factor for all kinds of strokes," Dr. Jennifer Frontera said.

Study links eating more protein to lowered stroke risk

Reuters

According to a new analysis of past studies, people with the most protein-heavy diets are about 20 percent less likely to have a stroke than those who eat the least protein.

Since the analysis includes studies with different designs, there is a chance that something other than protein intake might explain the results, said co-author Dr. Xinfeng Liu of Nanjing University School of Medicine in China.

“Dietary protein intake tends to be associated with other nutrients that may prevent stroke, such as potassium, magnesium and dietary fiber,” so the findings should be interpreted with caution, Liu told Reuters Health in an email.

Still, the relationship between protein and stroke persisted when the researchers only looked at studies that took those factors into account, he noted.

U.S. Diabetes Cases Jump to 29 Million: CDC

Nearly 1 in 10 people now face higher risks for various ills linked to the blood sugar disease, report finds.

Robert Preidt / HealthDay Reporter

The number of Americans with diabetes rose from 26 million in 2010 to 29 million -- 9 percent of the population -- in 2012, a new federal government study finds.

One in every four people with diabetes does not even realize it, according to the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Another 86 million American adults -- more than one-third of adults -- have what doctors call "prediabetes. " This means their blood sugar levels are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be classified as type 2 diabetes, the CDC said.