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Ready to be scared about cell phones all over again?  A new study has found that wireless devices ARE a safety risk for children. According to newswise.com, a scholarly article on wireless safety reports that children and fetuses are the most at risk from neurological and biological damage that results from microwave radiation emitted by wireless devices, due to the higher rate of absorption of microwave radiation by children than by adults. The study describes how the fetus is particularly vulnerable to microwave radiation, which can cause degeneration of the protective myelin sheath that surrounds brain neurons.  The authors recommend that wireless toys be banned due to the serious potential health risks. Want to be scared some more?  The paper also documents cancer registry studies showing increased brain cancer incidence. Because the average latency time between first exposure and diagnosis of a tumor can be decades, the total number of tumors induced ...

When I worked for a large corporation back in the '80s, and they did these things, I went on a weekend jaunt, along with my department, to a workshop on how the brain works.  I remember being singled out by the teacher because some drawing or diagram I did showed that I had extreme activity in my right brain. Supposedly that meant I was very creative. Well, I am definitely right-brained (my husband might call it no-brained, at times, like when I broke my wrist last winter running on ice), and now a new study has found that pregnant women, too, mostly use their right brains during child-bearing.  According to medicalnewstoday.com (MNT), "New findings from scientists at Royal Holloway, University of London in the UK reveal that pregnant women exhibit increased activity in the right side of the brain - an area related to emotional skills." They say that might explain "baby brain," what most pregnant women go through where they're in an almost constant s...

It's probably not a surprise but almost 50% of the people hospitalized for the flu  this season are obese, not just because they are overweight but because of what obesity does to the immune system.  Acoording to USA Today, t he reported percentage of obese patients hospitalized is "a high number," Elizabeth Weise quotes Zack Moore, a medical epidemiologist with the North Carolina Division of Public Health in Raleigh, N.C. "In previous years it's usually in the 20s and 30% range." But it's just those who are overweight.  This season's flu is also hospitalizing more pregnant women than normal. So far this season 22% of hospitalized patients are pregnant, whereas 4.6% is the norm, Bresee told Weise. Researchers aren't entirely sure why these groups may be so strongly at risk, but believe it might be linked to immunological effects, Bresee added. Both obesity and pregnancy are known to alter the immune response. They also both tend to result i...

Tuna. Caffeine. Canned foods.  Did you know these can be toxic to pregnant women? A new study has found that such common foods can cause developmental delays in fetuses.  I remember craving tuna while I was pregnant with my son and ate it almost every day, only to find out that tuna, along with some other fish, is not recommended during pregnancies because the mercury in it can harm brain function. Ttuna, salmon, canned foods, tap water, caffeine, alcohol and over-the-counter medications can contain substances known to cause birth defects. “Unlike alcohol and nicotine, which carry a certain stigma along with surgeon general warnings on the packaging, tuna, canned foods, caffeine, and a handful of other foods and beverages with associated developmental effects are not typically thought of as unsafe,” Sarah Santiago, a Ph.D. student in psychology at UCR, and part of the study, said at newswise.com. “Consumption of tuna, salmon, canned goods, sugary desserts, fast fo...

I remember worrying every minute my son was in preschool and out of my sight.  It got a little better in kindergarden, after the first terrifying time he went on the bus (don't ask about the time he missed the bus, when it came and he wasn't on it).  In first and second grades, the worrying grew a little less.  I began to trust the teachers and that he would survive.  Then middle school came and even though I knew he could take care of himself now, I still worried But the worst is yet to come, according to Charles Blow of The New York Times. Charles Blow, who I adore, wrote an op-ed today about the dangers ahead -- and right in front of us -- for our teenagers . He writes that, in a hypothetical class of 100 high school seniors: 71 will have experienced physical assault 28 will have been "victimized" sexually (and 10, raped)  32 have experienced "child maltreatment" 27 were in a physical fight, and 16 carried a weapon in the l...