Helmet Laws. 900 Americans die each year in bicycle crashes, with three-quarters of the fatalities from head injuries. Bicycle helmets save lives but only 21 US states have laws requiring bicyclists to wear helmets. States with mandatory helmet laws have lower rates of fatalities/incapacitating injuries after bicycle-motor vehicle collisions than states without helmet laws. Pediatric…

Brain Power Boost. Regularly consuming the healthy fats found in fish, extra virgin olive oil, and nuts may assist in maintaining cognitive functions in older individuals. British Medical. Journal, May 2013

Celery and Cancer Cells Mortality. One way cancer cells thrive is by simply not dying as other cells are pre-programmed to do. Apigenin, a compound found in plant based foods like parsley and celery, has been observed in a laboratory setting to re-educate breast cancer cells to die as scheduled. Ohio State University, May 2013

Sleep Well. Increasing the number of hours adolescents sleep each night may reduce the prevalence of adolescent obesity. A recent study shows that fewer hours of sleep is associated with greater increases in adolescent body mass index (BMI) for participants between 14 and 18 years old. Increasing sleep from 8 to 10 hours per day…

Safer Teen Drivers. A new report on teen driver safety in the United States (US) shows encouraging trends. There has been a 47% decline in teen driver-related fatalities over the past six years. In the past three years, the number of teen passengers killed in crashes who were not wearing seat belts decreased 23%, the…

Vitamin D. A hormone produced in the skin with exposure to sunlight, Vitamin D is also found in fish, fish liver oils, and egg yolks. Muscle function and recovery from fatigue has been shown to improve with Vitamin D supplementation, which is thought to enhance the activity of the mitochondria- the power plants of the…

Kidney Disease and Being Overweight. Being overweight in young adulthood may significantly increase individuals’ risks of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD) by the time they become seniors. Those who were overweight in their late 20s and early 30s were twice as likely to have CKD at age 60-64 years compared with those who first became…

Prevent Tobacco Deaths. By the end of this century, tobacco smoking is projected to kill one billion people! To reduce the prevalence of smoking to less than 5% worldwide by 2048, world officials are attempting to implement plain packaging, high taxation, smoke-free public places, and educational non-smoking and stop smoking campaigns. Governance of Tobacco in…

Maternal Diet. An important predictor of the severity of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in infants is what their mothers ate during pregnancy. The most serious cases of RSV correlate with mothers who ate a diet high in carbohydrates during gestation. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, March 2013

The Active Lifestyle Approach. Adults who incorporate more movement into their daily lives are 4x more likely to meet the United States Government’s federal fitness guidelines (30 minutes of exercise per day) than those who attempt to do more structured exercise activities like running or lifting weights. American Journal of Health Promotion, February 2013