Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

A Poor Diet in College Can Lead to a Lifetime of Bad Health

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by StudyFinds.

University students often get a reputation of living on a diet of microwavable meals and energy drinks. While these questionable decisions are usually chalked up to the college lifestyle, a new study is stressing the importance of ditching these habits after graduation. Researchers from the University of British Columbia Okanagan suggest poor dietary habits established during college can contribute to future health issues years and even decades later — including obesity, respiratory illnesses, and depression.

Dr. Joan Bottorff, a professor with UBCO’s School of Nursing, is one of several international researchers involved with this multi-site study that assessed the eating habits of university students. Nearly 12,000 medical students from 31 universities in China took part in this project, which aimed to determine the association between eating behaviors, obesity, and various diseases.

We know many students consume high-calorie meals along with sugary foods and drinks and there is lots of evidence to show those kinds of eating behaviors can lead to obesity,” Dr. Bottorff says in a university release. “These are not the only habits that lead to obesity, but they are important and can’t be ruled out.”

A typical student diet consisting of high-sugar or high-calorie foods can be a long-term issue; these habits often lead to obesity. Dr. Bottorff adds there is evidence suggesting stress and anxiety can cause overeating, and overeating is also known to lead to stress and depression.

The study was published in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports.

Source: StudyFinds
https://studyfinds.org/poor-diet-college-bad-health/

Leisure-Time Physical Activity May Improve Mental Health in Teens

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by News Medical.

A recent study led by the University of Eastern Finland suggests that regular leisure-time physical activity, even in small doses, is associated with lower odds of depression, anxiety, chronic stress, and school psychologist visits among Finnish adolescents. However, the relationship between active school transport, i.e., walking or cycling to school, and mental health remains inconclusive. The findings were published in the prestigious Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports.

Regular physical activity can improve mental health through various pathways, such as increasing the production of “feel-good” hormones, enhancing sleep quality, and boosting self-confidence. While mental health problems are common, few large population-based studies have examined the relationship between physical activity and adolescent mental health. Furthermore, it is currently unknown whether active school transport can have beneficial effects on mental health.

The researchers observed that leisure-time moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was associated with better mental health among nearly 33,000 15-to-16-year-old adolescents. Compared with inactivity, as little as 30 minutes of weekly physical activity was associated with 17% lower odds of chronic stress symptoms. In addition, the odds of depression and anxiety symptoms were 22% and 32% lower, respectively, for adolescents who reported an hour of weekly physical activity. The most physically active youth (i.e., those reporting at least 4 hours of physical activity a week) had the lowest odds of mental health symptoms.

The association of active school transport with mental health differed from leisure-time physical activity. No associations were found between low-to-moderate doses (less than 30 minutes) of daily active school transport and mental health. However, walking or cycling to school for more than 30 minutes a day was, surprisingly, associated with higher odds of depression symptoms and school psychologist visits.

The study was conducted in collaboration with the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and the nationwide School Health Promotion study.

Source: News Medical
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20230426/Leisure-time-physical-activity-may-improve-mental-health-in-teens.aspx

Study Finds a Concerning Association Between BMI and the Adolescent Brain

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

Obesity is a growing epidemic in children and adults. A large national study published in the International Journal of Obesity now finds that preteens carrying excess weight have notable differences in cognitive performance, brain structures, and brain circuitry when compared to preteens with a normal body-mass index (BMI).

The study involved nearly 5,000 9- to 10-year-olds at 21 sites across the United States. While it only examines the relationship between BMI and the brain and cannot establish causation, there is a significant association between BMI and brain measures in the study.

Study leader Caterina Stamoulis, Ph.D., a researcher in Adolescent Medicine and director of the Computational Neuroscience Laboratory at Boston Children's Hospital, finds the association concerning.

"It raises an alarm that it's important to track adolescents' brain health, especially when they have excess BMI," she says. "Early adolescence is a time when the brain is very actively developing, and when frontal areas of the brain—those involved in higher cognitive functions—change enormously and are vulnerable to miswiring."

In preteens with excess BMI, brain circuits supporting higher-level cognitive functions, reward, emotional processing, and attention were found to be organized less efficiently and to be less well-connected and less resilient than in preteens with normal BMI.

Excess BMI was correlated with differences in multiple brain structures, as well as a lower ability to think logically and solve problems in new settings. The differences were consistent even after adjusting for factors—like sleep duration, screen time, physical activity, depression, and self-worth—related to weight that may affect both BMI and brain health.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04-association-bmi-adolescent-brain.html

Good Sleep is Key to Pre-Teen Mental Health

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

For many kids, the period between childhood and early adolescence can be difficult.

This transitional period is commonly known as "pre-adolescence" and can be a vulnerable time for the development of mental health problems, like anxiety and depression.

So many of our young adolescents need support to navigate this time as they develop. Improving a young person's sleep behavior could be one tool to do this.

Adequate, good-quality sleep is crucial for mental health and well-being for everyone—from infancy to old age. On the other hand, experiencing sleep problems, like insomnia, recurrent nightmares and breathing problems during sleep are associated with poorer mental health.

A new study published recently in JAMA Psychiatry set out to investgate the role of a range of sleep problems on the emotional and behavioral well-being of pre-adolescents.

Researchers analyzed data from a longitudinal study of more than 10,000 children and their parents or caregivers, which assessed children aged 9 to 11 and again two years later when they were 11 to 13. Parents and caregivers were asked about their child's typical sleep patterns, sleep problems and any changes to sleeping, as well as any emotional and behavioral problems they were experiencing.

The study found that one in four pre-adolescents experienced very low levels of sleep disturbance, while the majority (about two in five pre-adolescents, or 42%) experienced moderate levels of a range of problems. A minority experienced difficulties specifically in falling asleep and staying asleep throughout the night (about one in seven, or 16%), or high levels of problems in general (17%).

When the adolescents were assessed two years later, there was a marked shift in the prevalence of sleep problems experienced by adolescents overall.

The number of young teenagers having difficulties specifically falling and staying asleep now made up one-third of the sample and one-third experienced low levels of problems. In contrast, one in five experienced moderate levels of "mixed" problems (down from 42%).

Notably, when adolescents experienced an increase in their sleep problems, they also experienced increases in both emotional and behavioral problems.

This effect was much stronger for emotional problems (like feelings of anxiety or a depressed mood), highlighting the importance of getting a good night's sleep for adolescents' emotional well-being.

When adolescents' sleep problems improved, so too did their mental health.

The findings indicate that treating sleep problems could be an effective way to improve mental health symptoms in young teens, and highlights the importance of good sleep for their mental well-being and may have long-lasting benefits throughout adolescence and beyond.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04-good-key-pre-teen-mental-health.html

Almost Half of People with Concussion Still Show Symptoms of Brain Injury Six Months Later

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

Even mild concussion can cause long-lasting effects to the brain, according to researchers at the University of Cambridge. Using data from a Europe-wide study, the team has shown that for almost a half of all people who receive a knock to the head, there are changes in how regions of the brain communicate with each other, potentially causing long term symptoms such as fatigue and cognitive impairment.

While some clinicians in recent studies predict that nine out of 10 individuals who experience concussion will have a full recovery after six months, evidence is emerging that only a half achieve a full recovery. This means that a significant proportion of patients may not receive adequate post-injury care.

Dr. Emmanuel Stamatakis from the Department of Clinical Neurosciences and Division of Anesthesia at the University of Cambridge and colleagues studied fMRI brain scans—that is, functional MRI scans, which look at how different areas of the brain coordinate with each other—taken from 108 patients with mild traumatic brain injury and compared them with scans from 76 healthy volunteers. Patients were also assessed for ongoing symptoms.

In results published in the journal Brain, the team found that just under half (45%) were still showing symptoms resulting from their brain injury, with the most common being fatigue, poor concentration and headaches.

The researchers found that these patients had abnormalities in a region of the brain known as the thalamus, which integrates all sensory information and relays this information around the brain. Counter-intuitively, concussion was associated with increased connectivity between the thalamus and the rest of the brain—in other words, the thalamus was trying to communicate more as a result of the injury—and the greater this connectivity, the poorer the prognosis for the patient.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04-people-concussion-symptoms-brain-injury.html

Sedentary Time May Significantly Increase Adolescent Heart Size

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

In adolescents, sedentary time may increase heart size three times more than moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, a paper published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports concludes. The study was conducted in collaboration between the University of Bristol in the U.K., the University of Exeter in the U.K., and the University of Eastern Finland. The researchers explored the associations of sedentary time, light physical activity, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity with cardiac structure and function.

The study, which used data from the University of Bristol study Children of the 90s (also known as the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children), included 530 adolescents aged 17 years who had complete measurements of fat mass, muscle mass, glucose, lipids, an inflammation marker, insulin, smoking status, socio-economic status, family history of cardiovascular disease, echocardiographic cardiac function and structure measures, and accelerometer-based measure of sedentary time, light physical activity, and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity.

On average, adolescents spent almost eight hours/day sedentary and about 49 minutes/day in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in this new study. It was observed that both sedentary time and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity were associated with higher left ventricular mass. However, the increase in cardiac mass associated with sedentary time was three times higher than the cardiac mass increase associated with moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. This finding was observed in adolescents irrespective of their obesity status, i.e., among adolescents who had normal weight and those who were overweight or obese. Importantly, light physical activity was not associated with an increase in cardiac mass but was associated with better cardiac function estimated from left ventricular diastolic function.

"This novel evidence extends our knowledge of the adverse effects of sedentary time on cardiac health. It is known among adults that an increase in cardiac mass may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and death by 7%–20%. Engaging in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity also slightly enlarged the heart, but it seems an acceptable 'negative side effect' considering several other health benefits of moderate-to-vigorous exercise," says Andrew Agbaje, a physician and clinical epidemiologist at the University of Eastern Finland.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04-sedentary-significantly-adolescent-heart-size.html

Adolescents Who Use Smartphones for More Than Three Hours a Day Found to Suffer More From Back Pain

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

Thanks to the popularization of smartphones and tablets, and the multiplication of video channels, computer games and educational apps, children and adolescents are spending more and more time looking at screens, usually with bad posture, which can cause back pain, among other problems.

A study by Brazilian researchers reported in an article published in Healthcare identified several risk factors for spinal health, such as looking at screens for more than three hours a day, proximity of the eyes to the screen, and sitting or lying on the stomach.

The study focused on thoracic spine pain (TSP). The thoracic spine is located at the back of the chest (the thorax), mostly between the shoulder blades, extending from the bottom of the neck to the start of the lumbar spine. The data analyzed came from surveys of 14- to 18-year-old male and female students in the first and second years of high school in Bauru, a medium-sized city in São Paulo state.

TSP is common in different age groups of the general population worldwide, with prevalence ranging from 15%-35% in adults and 13%-35% in children and adolescents. Explosive growth in the use of electronic devices during the COVID-19 pandemic clearly made the problem worse

The risk factors associated with TSP are physical, physiological, psychological and behavioral, according to several investigations. There is also strong evidence of the effects of physical activity, sedentary habits and mental disorders on spinal health.

Information on risk factors for TSP in high school students is important because children and adolescents with back pain are more inactive, achieve less academically and have more psychosocial problems, according to the study.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-04-adolescents-smartphones-hours-day-pain.html

Hypertension in Teens Tied to Heart Damage

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

Hypertension may precede premature cardiac damage in young adults, according to a study published online in The Journal of Pediatrics.

Andrew O. Agbaje, M.D., from University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio, used data from 1,856 17-year-olds participating in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, U.K. birth cohort, who were followed-up for seven years to examine the longitudinal course for the development of hypertension and cardiac damage in adolescents.

Analysis showed that the prevalence of elevated systolic blood pressure (BP) increased from 6.4 to 12.2 percent, left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy from 3.6 to 7.2 percent, and LV diastolic dysfunction from 11.1 to 16.3 percent. There was an association noted between cumulative elevated systolic BP and worsening LV hypertrophy in females (odds ratio, 1.61). In both males and females, elevated systolic BP was associated with worsening LV diastolic dysfunction. There was an association seen between elevated diastolic BP and worsening LV hypertrophy in both males and females.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/physician-s-briefing-hypertension-2659656042.html

Diabetes Rates Keep Rising Among Young Americans

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by HealthDay.

Troubling new research finds that rates of type 1 and type 2 diabetes are continuing to increase in children and young adults.

Asian or Pacific Islander, Black and Hispanic children had higher rates, the study found.

"Our research suggests a growing population of young adults with diabetes who are at risk of developing complications from the disease," said lead researcher Lynne Wagenknecht, a professor, and director of public health sciences at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C.

"It's a troubling trend in young people whose health care needs will exceed those of their peers," she said in a university news release.

The findings are from the final report of the large SEARCH For Diabetes in Youth study, launched in 2000 with support from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Wake Forest School of Medicine was coordinating center for the study, which included five U.S. medical centers.

It identified more than 18,000 young people aged 19 and under who were diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and 5,200 10- to 19-year-olds diagnosed with type 2 diabetes between 2002 and 2018. The annual incidence of type 1 diabetes was 22.2 per 100,000 in 2017-2018 and 17.9 per 100,000 for type 2 diabetes.

"In our 17-year analysis, we found that the incidence of type 1 diabetes increased by 2% per year, and the incidence of type 2 diabetes increased by 5.3% per year," Wagenknecht said.

Peak age at diagnosis was 10 years for type 1 diabetes; 16 for type 2.

The study was recently published online in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology.

Source: HealthDay
https://consumer.healthday.com/diabetes-rates-keep-rising-among-young-americans-2659515474.html

Erratic Sleep Patterns Linked to Elevated Blood Pressure in Teens with Extra Belly Weight

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by EurekAlert!

Staying awake later into the night and sleeping in on the weekends are hallmarks of adolescent behavior, however, erratic sleep patterns may have consequences for future heart health by increasing blood pressure among teens who have more abdominal fat, according to new research published in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal.

The researchers evaluated sleep, visceral fat, and blood pressure in 303 adolescents from central Pennsylvania (average age 16.2 years) who returned for a repeat evaluation after participating as children in the Penn State Child Cohort study. Sleep was measured during one night in the sleep lab and at home over seven days by wearing a wristwatch-like sleep monitoring device. With this device, researchers tracked sleep duration and its variability (to capture how much and how little adolescents slept night-to-night), sleep midpoint (the midpoint between sleep and wake-up time), and its regularity (to capture their sleep patterns over time). A sleep midpoint at 2 a.m. or later is considered delayed for a typical adolescent during the school week, and night-to-night differences of 45 minutes or more in the sleep midpoint was considered highly irregular.

Overall, the participants had sleep habits typical of adolescents – going to bed later than they did during grade school and sleeping later on weekends and school breaks than on school days.

Among the adolescents studied during the school year and whose sleep varied by 45 minutes or more during the school week, each unit increase in visceral abdominal fat was linked to a 7 mm Hg higher systolic (top number) blood pressure and a 3 mm Hg higher diastolic (bottom number) blood pressure.

In contrast, among teens whose sleep varied less than 45 minutes during the school week, there was no link between visceral abdominal fat and elevated blood pressure.

In teens who described themselves as “evening people,” each unit increase in visceral abdominal fat was linked to about a 3 mm Hg higher diastolic blood pressure; however, among self-described “morning people,” there was no impact of visceral abdominal fat on blood pressure.

“These results suggest that keeping a regular sleep pattern may protect adolescents from the cardiovascular consequences of obesity,” said Natasha Morales-Ghinaglia, B.S., first author of the study and an American Heart Association predoctoral fellow at the Penn State College of Medicine Sleep Research & Treatment Center in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania.

Source: EurekAlert!
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/981240