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☆ Physical Fitness Linked to Better Mental Health in Young People
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-29 | by ( Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Physical fitness among children and adolescents may protect against developing depressive symptoms, anxiety and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a study published on Monday in JAMA Pediatrics. The study also found that better performance in cardiovascular activities, strength and muscular endurance were each associated with greater protection against such mental health conditions. The researchers deemed this linkage “dose-dependent”, suggesting that a child or adolescent who is more fit may be accordingly less likely to experience the onset of a mental health disorder. These findings come amid a surge of mental health diagnoses among children and adolescents, in the United States and abroad, that have prompted efforts to understand and curb the problem.

Organizations: Pediatrics Locations: United States

☆ Beth Linker Is Turning Good Posture on Its Head
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-26 | by ( Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For decades, the idea of standing properly upright carried considerable political and social baggage. In the early 20th century, posture exams became mainstays in the military, the workplace and schools, thanks in part to the American Posture League, a group of physicians, educators and health officials that formed in 1914. In 1917, a study found that roughly 80 percent of Harvard’s freshman class had poor posture. But the actual science doesn’t support the conventional wisdom about proper posture, Beth Linker argues in her new book, “Slouch: Posture Panic in Modern America.” Dr. Linker, a historian and sociologist of science at the University of Pennsylvania, recently sat for an interview with The New York Times; the conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. Your posture looks pretty good.

Persons: Slouching, Beth, “, ” Organizations: League, University of Pennsylvania, The New York Times Locations: Modern America

☆ Surprise: An ‘Extraterrestrial’ Gadget Was Something More Familiar
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-11 | by ( Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In January of 2014, a meteor fell from space off the coast of Papua New Guinea. Last fall, Benjamin Fernando, a planetary seismologist at Johns Hopkins University, led a team that re-examined the nearby seismic signals and concluded that they were not evidence of the extraterrestrial, or anything close to it. Recently, he sat down with The New York Times to preview what his team had found. In 2014, a meteor entered the atmosphere and went “bang.” Sometimes, you hear these meteors on seismometers. Avi Loeb wrote a paper to say that he’d found the seismic signal from this meteor and that he’d used it to locate exactly where the meteor debris fell.

Persons: Avi Loeb, Dr, Loeb, Benjamin Fernando, Fernando, he’d Organizations: Harvard, Johns Hopkins University, New York Times Locations: Papua New Guinea

☆ Severe Frostbite Gets a Treatment That May Prevent Amputation
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The first time Dr. Peter Hackett saw a patient with frostbite, the man died from his wounds. Dr. Hackett later worked at Mount Everest Basecamp, on Denali, Alaska, and now in Colorado, becoming expert in treating cold-weather injury. His mentor in Anchorage used to say, “Frostbite January, Amputation July,” remembered Dr. Hackett, clinical professor at the Altitude Research Center at the University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Campus. “For centuries, there was nothing else to do.”This month, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first therapy for treatment of severe frostbite in the country. The drug, iloprost, is given intravenously for several hours a day over a little more than week.

Persons: Peter Hackett, Hackett, Mount Everest Basecamp, ” Organizations: Mount Everest, Altitude, University of Colorado’s Anschutz Medical, Food and Drug Administration Locations: Chicago, Denali , Alaska, Colorado, Anchorage

☆ More Young People Are on Multiple Psychiatric Drugs, Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Matt Richtel | More About Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

The NewsGrowing numbers of children and adolescents are being prescribed multiple psychiatric drugs to take simultaneously, according to a new study in the state of Maryland. In this group, there was a 9.5 percent increase in the prevalence of “polypharmacy,” which the study defined as taking three or more different classes of psychiatric medications, including antidepressants, mood-stabilizing anticonvulsants, sedatives and drugs for A.D.H.D. Mental health experts said that psychotropic medications can prove very helpful and that doctors have discretion to prescribe what they see fit. And it is unclear how the simultaneous use of multiple psychotropic medications affects brain development long-term. The NumbersThe latest study looked at data from 126,972 people over the study period.

Organizations: Medical, Survey Locations: Maryland, United States

☆ Now Hibernating: Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Her husband, Mark, 68, has long been a fan of chocolate chip, but he doesn’t see it around much anymore. “In the small container.” Then she corrected herself: “Oh, that’s chocolate chocolate chip.”Vanilla chocolate chip ice cream, once a staple of the ice cream world and one of the top sellers of all time, has fallen out of favor. The flavor can still be found (a closer inspection of the Safeway aisle in this university mountain town revealed pints of Baskin Robbins’s chocolate chip), but it has been losing ground to flavors with more stuff, like cookies and cream and chocolate chip cookie dough. Those two flavors are among the nation’s top five best sellers, according to the International Dairy Foods Association, while chocolate chip no longer makes the top 10. “Chocolate chip used to be a flavor we produced constantly,” said Christine Crowley, communications specialist for Babcock Dairy Plant, which has 75 years of ice-cream making under its belt, in Madison, Wis. Chocolate chip hasn’t been a staple for a decade, she said: “Now it’s seasonal.”

Persons: Cherry Garcia, Dr Pepper, Robin Sawyer, Mark, Ms, Sawyer, “, ”, Christine Crowley Organizations: Safeway, International Dairy Foods Association, Babcock Dairy Plant Locations: Baskin, Madison, Wis

☆ Teen Drug and Alcohol Use Linked to Mental Health Distress
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-29 | by ( Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The NewsTeenagers who use cannabis, alcohol and nicotine are more likely to have underlying psychiatric symptoms, and worse symptoms, than their peers who are not regularly using substances, new research has found. The research, published Monday in JAMA Pediatrics, found that such substances are linked to an array of symptoms and conditions, including anxiety, depression, hyperactivity and suicidal ideation. These findings suggest that asking adolescents about substance use may provide a powerful screening tool when looking for underlying mental health issues, researchers said. “Universally screening for psychiatric symptoms in the context of all types of substance use is what we think might be most important,” said Brenden Tervo-Clemmens, assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Minnesota and lead author of the paper. “All the symptoms of mental health we examined, be it depression, suicidal thoughts, ADHD, were elevated no matter what the substance was,” he added.

Persons: ”, Brenden Organizations: Pediatrics, University of Minnesota

☆ Phones Track Everything but Their Role in Car Wrecks
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-26 | by ( Matt Richtel | More About Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

Cellphones can track what we say and write, where we go, what we buy and what we search on the internet. But they still aren’t being used to track one of the biggest public health threats: crashes caused by drivers distracted by the phones. Safety experts say that current estimates most likely understate a worsening problem. Car crashes recorded by the police rose 16 percent from 2020 to 2021, to 16,700 a day from 14,400 a day, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or N.H.T.S.A. But those figures do not capture all cellphone distraction; they include only crashes in which a police report specifically mentions such distraction.

Persons: ”, David Strayer, It’s, Jake Nelson, “ Organizations: National, Traffic Safety Administration, University of Utah, Traffic, Research, AAA, The New York Times, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety

☆ A Giant Leap for the Leap Second. Is Humankind Ready?
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Matt Richtel | More About Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For 50 years, the international community has carefully and precariously balanced two different ways of keeping time. The trouble is that the times on these clocks diverge. The astronomical time, called Universal Time, or UT1, has tended to fall a few clicks behind the atomic one, called International Atomic Time, or TAI. So every few years since 1972, the two times have been synced by the insertion of leap seconds — pausing the atomic clocks briefly to let the astronomic one catch up. But it’s hard to forecast precisely when the leap second will be required, and this has created an intensifying headache for technology companies, countries and the world’s timekeepers.

Organizations: Universal Locations: Dubai

☆ Is Social Media Addictive? Here’s What the Science Says.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-25 | by ( Matt Richtel | More About Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

David Greenfield, a psychologist and founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction in West Hartford, Conn., said the devices lure users with some powerful tactics. One is “intermittent reinforcement,” which creates the idea that a user could get a reward at any time. As with a slot machine, users are beckoned with lights and sounds but, even more powerful, information and reward tailored to a user’s interests and tastes. “They’re all about impulse and not a lot about the control of that impulse,” Dr. Greenfield said of young consumers. Moreover, he said, the adolescent brain is especially attuned to social connections, and “social media is all a perfect opportunity to connect with other people.”Meta responded to the lawsuit by saying that it had taken many steps to support families and teenagers.

Persons: David Greenfield, ”, “, Dr, Greenfield, ” Meta, “ We’re Organizations: Center, Internet, Technology, Disorders Locations: West Hartford, Conn

☆ Online Marijuana Shops Make It Easy for Minors to Buy, Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-25 | by ( Matt Richtel | More About Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

The NumbersThe research examined the age-verification policies and other practices of 80 online dispensaries, based in 32 states, that sell marijuana to American customers. Of the dispensaries studied, nearly one-third allowed delivery across state lines — and of those, 95 percent offered delivery to states with marijuana laws different from the home state of the online dispensary. About one-third of high school seniors had used marijuana at least once in 2021, along with 20 percent of 10th graders and 8.3 percent of eighth graders. What’s NextOnline marijuana sales, and the ease of shipping, would seem to make it easier for minors to access the drug, the study’s authors noted. “It is imperative,” they wrote in their conclusion, “to require strict age-verification procedures prior to cannabis purchases online and to establish stringent surveillance of online marijuana dispensaries to protect youth.”In the interim, they added, “pediatricians and caregivers must be aware of the widespread availability of online dispensaries and potential dissemination of marijuana to minors.”

Persons: ”, “, “ pediatricians Organizations: National Institutes of Health, ”

☆ Cannabis Use Disorder Is ‘Common’ Among Marijuana Users, Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Matt Richtel | More About Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

The NewsMore than one-fifth of people who use cannabis struggle with dependency or problematic use, according to a study published on Tuesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open. The research found that 21 percent of people in the study had some degree of cannabis use disorder, which clinicians characterize broadly as problematic use of cannabis that leads to a variety of symptoms, such as recurrent social and occupational problems, indicating impairment and distress. In the study, 6.5 percent of users suffered moderate to severe disorder. Cannabis users who experience more severe dependency tended to be recreational users, whereas less severe but still problematic use was associated roughly equally with medical and recreational use. The most common symptoms among both groups were increased tolerance, craving, and uncontrolled escalation of cannabis use.

Organizations: American Medical Association Network

☆ As Teens Take to E-Bikes, Parents Ask: Is This Freedom or Danger?
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Matt Richtel | More About Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For Ms. Wood of Boulder, Colo., that meant less time carting Sawyer in the car. In early August, Sawyer crashed while riding her e-bike without a helmet. “These kids don’t have driver’s licenses,” Ms. Wood said. They go really fast.”After news of Sawyer’s accident spread around town, Scott Weiss, a Boulder resident and parent of two teenagers, decided to sell the family’s two e-bikes. He said he would sell the e-bikes only to someone “college-age” or older: “I don’t want to sell it to someone who is not prepared to make the mental judgments you have to make.”

Persons: Wood, carting Sawyer, Sawyer, Ms, Scott Weiss, ” Locations: Boulder, Colo

☆ More Screen Time Linked to Delayed Development in Babies, Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Matt Richtel | More About Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“It doesn’t happen when you’re watching the screen,” he said, adding that he was not surprised by the research results. The findings, conducted by scholars in Japan, were drawn from questionnaires about development and screen time, which were given to parents of nearly 8,000 young children. The study noted a “dose-response association” between screen time and developmental delays: The more screen time babies were given, the more likely they were to show developmental delays. What’s NextThe study’s authors noted that the research did not distinguish between screen time that was intended to be educational and screen time more focused on entertainment. To ask parents to withhold all screen time from their babies was impractical, he said: “No parent would listen to that.

Persons: David J, ”, Lewkowicz Organizations: Yale Child Study Locations: Japan

☆ Middle-Aged Adults Are Binge Drinking and Using Marijuana at Record Levels
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Matt Richtel | More About Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Different generations use different drugs and at different levels. The research has been supported since 1975 by the National Institutes of Drug Abuse, or NIDA, which is a part of the N.I.H. NIDA typically draws attention for its study of behavior and drug use patterns among young people in middle and high school. But the research also follows people throughout their lives, looking at the use of alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes and other substances. “It’s important to track this so that public health professionals and communities can be prepared to respond,” Dr. Patrick said.

Persons: ”, Megan Patrick, Dr, Patrick, “, Nora Volkow, Volkow Organizations: University of Michigan, National Institutes of Drug, NIDA

☆ ‘We’re All Water-Bottle Freaks’
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Matt Richtel | More About Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A registered nurse and a mother of two from Colorado, she estimates that her family has accumulated “upward of 25 to 30” reusable flasks at home for keeping cold drinks: flasks large and small, of various designs and colors, with a straw and without. “Convenience,” she said, laughing, as she tried to piece together why, once again, she was not using one of her many beverage containers. “I guess we’re just a lazy society.”Americans are drinking a lot of water, but they are on the fence about how best to do it. More than $2 billion in reusable water bottles were sold the United States in 2022, up from around $1.5 billion in 2020, according to Greg Williamson, the president of CamelBak, which is a maker of reusable bottles. And sales of single-serving water bottles have been rising steadily, too, reaching 11.3 billion gallons in 2022, according to the most recent data from the Beverage Marketing Association, which tracks beverage sales.

Persons: Carrie Frost, Greg Williamson Organizations: Beverage Marketing Association Locations: Colorado, United States

☆ Is It an E-Bike, or a Motorcycle for Children?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-31 | by ( Matt Richtel | More About Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The company calls the K1D an “electric balance bike.”“But you can also call it a motorcycle,” Mr. Crewse said during a tour of the company’s 60,000-square-foot headquarters. “Then we have a race mode,” Mr. Crewse said — at 15 miles per hour. The e-bike industry is already pushing the boundaries of youth transportation, and Super73 is an early darling among customers. The company aims to sell more than 25,000 units this year, a significant portion of them for teens, Mr. Crewse said. What the company is selling, Mr. Crewse said, is a lifestyle, featuring “cool” products that are not subject to heavy regulation.

Persons: LeGrand Crewse, Mr, Crewse, —, ” Organizations: Super73

☆ What Is an E-Bike, and How Safe Are They?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-29 | by ( Matt Richtel | More About Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Class 1: Maximum speed, 20 m.p.h. Class 2: Maximum speed, 20 m.p.h. In most states, then, riders under 16 can use Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes, while riders of Class 3 e-bikes must be 16 or older. It can be hard to tell by looking if a teenage rider is too young for the e-bike being ridden. And glancing at an e-bike’s motor does not establish whether it can go faster than 20 m.p.h.

Persons: PeopleForBikes Locations: Oregon

☆ ‘A Dangerous Combination’: Teenagers’ Accidents Expose E-Bike Risks
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-29 | by ( Matt Richtel | More About Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On a Thursday evening in late June, Clarissa Champlain learned that her 15-year-old son Brodee had been in a terrible crash, the latest teen victim of an e-bike accident. The e-bike, a model made by Rad Power, had a top speed of 20 miles per hour, but his route took him on a busy road with a 55-mile-per-hour limit. Ms. Champlain rushed to the hospital and was taken to Brodee’s room. “I went to grab his head and kiss him,” she recalled. In the days following, the town of Encinitas, where both incidents occurred, declared a state of emergency for e-bike safety.

Persons: Clarissa Champlain, Brodee, Champlain, “, ” Organizations: Rad Power, Nissan, BMW Locations: Encinitas

☆ Biggest Threat to Submersible’s Passengers May Now Be Dwindling Oxygen
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As search and rescue teams scour the North Atlantic for the missing submersible Titan, one overriding question may dictate the fate of the five passengers: How much oxygen is left? The submersible contains a finite amount of oxygen, with no way of generating more. Once it is consumed, passengers would be left without breathable air. If they can remain calm and breathe less deeply and frequently, they might eke out several more hours. For instance, if they could slow their breathing enough to gain 10 percent more time, that would add nine hours of survival to the possible window for rescue.

Persons: David Organizations: Atlantic, U.S . Coast Guard, Stanford University

☆ The Refries That Bind: A Cavernous Cantina Returns, Cliff Divers and All
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-06 | by ( Matt Richtel | David Williams | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But for generations of Colorado children, arguably the most commonly shared experience involved Casa Bonita, a vast, filthy, poorly-lit, underground restaurant with food that many diners deemed barely edible. Casa Bonita — sprawling over 52,000 square feet in Lakewood, a Denver suburb — served steamed refried beans, tacos and enchiladas to thousands of people a day, buffet-style. “Oh, that’s a place,” Mr. Parker would respond, he said recently. It’s weird.” Like so many Colorado children, Mr. Parker had held his birthday parties there. Then, in 2020, Casa Bonita went bankrupt, hit by the pandemic slump.

Persons: Casa, Trey Parker, Matt Stone, ” Mr, Parker Organizations: NoEata Locations: Colorado, Casa Bonita, Bonita, Lakewood, Denver, —, Casa

☆ Emergency Room Visits Have Risen Sharply for Young People in Mental Distress, Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The NewsMental health-related visits to emergency rooms by children, teenagers and young adults soared from 2011 to 2020, according to a report published on Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The sharpest increase was for suicide-related visits, which rose fivefold. The research, drawn from data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, looked at the annual number of mental health-related E.R. The number of visits rose for many conditions, including mood and behavioral disorders, substance use and psychosis. But the increase in suicide-related issues was most pronounced, increasing to 4.2 percent of all pediatric emergency room visits in 2020 from 0.9 percent in 2011.

☆ The Grandmaster Plan to Turn Hordes of Kids Into Chess Fanatics
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Matt Richtel | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Stella Schwartz, 16, hopped on the chess bandwagon earlier this year after hearing about the game from her older brother, Hugh, a high school senior in San Francisco. Alex Post, a freshman at Colorado University, started playing in February, after some chess-related videos appeared in his Tik Tok feed; then he got his whole fraternity playing. Many other teenagers and young adults said that they too had recently developed a regular chess habit, although they could not recall how it started. But by all accounts — from players, parents, teachers, website metrics — the game’s popularity has exploded. (In December Chess.com also purchased the Play Magnus Group, a company started by chess world champion Magnus Carlsen that includes a mobile chess app.)

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