Specific fungi in the gut associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease and found in people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can be altered in a beneficial manner by eating a modified Mediterranean diet, researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine have found. The small study is published in the current online edition of…
Science
Autism severity can change substantially during early childhood
“IQ is considered to be the strongest predictor of symptom severity for children with autism, As IQ scores increased from age 3 to age 6, symptom severity levels decreased” Waizbard-Bartov et al. (2020). UC Davis MIND Institute study Around 30 percent of young children with autism have less severe autism symptoms at age 6 than…
Vitamin D3 and COVID-19
Vitamin D3 deficiency is suspected to raise the risk of more severe complications or death from COVID-19 such as cytokine storms which can happen to adults and is suspected to be the cause of the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, Not only does vitamin D enhance our innate immune systems, but it also prevents our…
Why It’s Smart School’s Out For Coronavirus
“We do not know why children under 9 do not have issues with the virus. They have very high concentrations of the virus and there’s no obvious reason they should not transmit efficiently … X-rays of children’s lungs show that they’re clearly diseased & clearly infected, but they don’t show any symptoms” Ralph Baric, Ph.D….
Eating fruit during pregnancy boosts babies’ brain development, new study confirms
” The idea that nutrition may also impact mental health and cognition has only recently started to gain traction,” Rachel Ward-Flanagan co author of study University of Alberta A follow-up to a University of Alberta study done in 2016 confirms that pregnant women who eat more fruit during pregnancy may be giving their babies’ cognitive development a…
Study: Baby and adult brains sync up during play
Have you ever played with a baby and felt a sense of connection, even though they couldn’t yet talk to you? New research suggests that you might quite literally be “on the same wavelength,” experiencing similar brain activity in the same brain regions. I just read this study and thought this would be very interesting…
Piracetam could harm users, study warns
New research led by Dr. Pieter Cohen of Harvard Medical School and his colleagues reported in JAMA Internal Medicine on Monday that piracetam is listed as an ingredient on the labels of five supplements for sale online. Side Effects Side effects of piracetam are numerous and include anxiety, and depression, hyperkinesia, or even severe cognitive…
Study: Toddlers using ‘screens’ more than 1 hour a day may have lower speech skills
“In addition to the MRI results, excessive screen time was significantly associated with poorer emerging literacy skills and ability to use expressive language, as well as testing lower on the ability to rapidly name objects on cognitive tests” Associations Between Screen-Based Media Use and Brain White Matter Integrity in Preschool-Aged Children John Hutton MD JAMA…
“Picky eater” teen loses vision and hearing due to junk food diet
40% of a typical 2 to 18-year old’s diet consists of “empty calories” (commonly known as “junk food”), and even in the remaining 60 percent of their diet, there are often roadblocks to gaining essential nutrients. Elimination and fad diets often prevent children from meeting daily requirements. Dietary sources of energy, solid fats, and added…
AI Brings Voice To Vulnerable Children
For children on the neurological spectrum, there is a 28 time higher risk than that of typical children for suicidal thoughts or attempts. Depression was the strongest single predictor of suicide contemplation or attempts in children with autism. Penn State College of Medicine researchers New Study Finds AI Can Detect Hidden Depression in a Child’s…