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Teens who spend lots of time surfing the web, playing games and chatting with friends on smartphones and tablets may be more likely to develop ADHD symptoms than youth who do not, a US study suggests. 

Researchers followed more than 2,500 Los Angeles high school students over two years, asking about symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and their digital media habits. 

None of the students had ADHD symptoms at the start of the study. Teens who reported frequent use of a wide variety of digital media platforms at the start of the study, however, were about 10 per cent more likely to develop ADHD symptoms within the next two years, researchers report in JAMA. 

“This study raises new concerns whether the proliferation of high-performance digital media technologies may be putting a new generation of youth at risk for ADHD,” said senior study author Adam Leventhal, director of the Health, Emotion, and Addiction Laboratory at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. 

“While digital media use in moderation might provide some benefits, like access to educational information or social support, excessive exposure to digital media entertainment could have adverse mental health consequences,” Leventhal said. 

Older forms of screen time — like television watching and playing video games on consoles — have long been linked to an increased risk of ADHD and other emotional and behavioural problems, especially when teens are engaged in these activities for hours on end.

A lot may depend on how often teens are being interrupted by beeps and buzzes from their phones, how they engage with their devices, and what types of social interactions they have in real life, Levanthal said. 

Adolescents who are constantly getting notifications to check a message or do something with an app may lose their ability to focus and stay engaged in tasks like schoolwork for long periods of time, he said. Binge-watching videos, meanwhile, might interfere with the development of patience, impulse control, and the ability to delay gratification. 

None of the students displayed symptoms of ADHD at the start of the study. Researchers assessed them with a standard questionnaire asking about symptoms like difficulty organising and completing tasks, trouble remaining still or staying focused on activities. 

Over the next two years, researchers surveyed teens every six months to see how often they did 14 different digital activities including texting, streaming videos or music and sharing on social media. 

High frequency users did these activities many times a day. Among 51 students in this category, about 11 per cent developed ADHD symptoms by the end of the study. 

Another 114 participants reported high frequency use of seven digital activities and about 10 per cent of these students also developed symptoms of ADHD during the study. 

But among the 495 teens who did not do any of these activities frequently, slightly less than 5 per cent developed ADHD symptoms. 

The study was not a controlled experiment designed to prove whether or how lots of screen time might directly cause symptoms of ADHD. It is also possible some participants had undetected symptoms of ADHD when they joined the study or that teens who developed symptoms gravitated toward digital media as a result. 

The results add to the evidence suggesting that parents should regulate how teens use smartphones and tablets, said Jenny Radesky, author of an accompanying editorial and a professor of paediatrics at the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor.

After living for six months in Mauritius, I have realised this about the islanders: they cannot stay married for long. However, it does not prevent them from rushing headlong into holy matrimony, not at all.

Mauritians are enthusiastic about getting wedded; make no mistake. They love the pomp and show that is associated with weddings and follow each ceremony to its last detail. Lavish banquets are hosted with the celebrations going on for several days and continuing till the wee hours of the morning. Everyone is happy, including the bride and groom. 

Exactly at what juncture the discontent sets in is difficult to pinpoint, because there seems to be no preordained pattern that is followed. What I mean is: of the several divorcees I came in contact with, some were separated within two years of marriage while others, two decades later. Also, once they decided to cut loose, there was no turning back and they headed straight to the divorce courts. 

“When you agree that your marriage has irretrievably broken down between you and your spouse and you want to get a divorce, you need to retain the services of an attorney at law to draft and lodge the paper work,” explained a barrister I met in Port Louis recently. 

“After the divorce petition is lodged, a date is given for your legal representative to present the application to the judge who may ask the parties some questions and attempt to find an agreement. If reconciliation is not possible, another date is fixed for the hearing of the case. Subsequently the judge will pronounce a temporary divorce decree. Thereafter, if within a period of three months, the parties have not reconciled, the judge will declare a permanent decree of divorce, which will be final,” she explained. 

Right! So what is the reason that so many Mauritians prefer to be divorced? Is it because divorce procedures are much easier here? Do young couples already think of separation when they are getting married? Or do they find that they are incompatible after a while and accordingly consider it better to go their separate ways? 

My tailor, gardener, driver, hairdresser and cleaner are all divorcees. One’s husband did not appear at the birth of their first child, another’s wife walked out claiming that the mother-in-law was too interfering and yet another’s husband decided that his wife was not as religious as he would have liked her to be. She followed the traditional ceremonies but did not fast on the days of the week that he wanted her to. He consulted the high priest at the local temple, and with his permission, decided to go ahead and file for divorce. 

I learned later, that this priest was estranged from his spouse too. Consumed with curiosity I was dying to talk to his former wife. Recently, I spotted her in a supermarket and rushed towards her. 

“Were you married to the pundit?” I asked politely. 

“Got divorced five years back,” she replied quietly. 

“What happened?” I queried. 

“We fought daily, over the TV,” she confessed. 

“Till we did not have the television it was fine,” she continued. 

“I loved the serials and he got me a flat screen TV,” she said. 

“Was that the reason for your divorce?” I was alarmed. 

“He started hiding the remote,” she accused. 

“Or watched religious shows continuously,” she asserted. 

“What did you do?” I questioned. 

“I put an end,” she answered. “To the sacred games,” she explained. 

While most adults know nicotine is bad for children, smokers and some other individuals are not convinced of this fact, according to a US study that suggests a need for more public education about the risks of tobacco. 

Overall, 83 per cent of adults understand that nicotine is “definitely harmful” to children, the analysis of national survey data from almost 12,000 US adults found. 

But adults who used multiple tobacco products were 60 per cent more likely than nonsmokers to say nicotine was “not harmful” for children. 

“It is important that all adults, not just parents of young children or tobacco product users, understand that nicotine is very harmful to children,” said lead study author Catherine Kemp, a public health researcher at Georgia State University in Atlanta. 

“There is no established safe level of nicotine exposure for children,” Kemp said by email. 

Nicotine exposure can cause upset stomach, nausea, vomiting, changes in heart rate and blood pressure, breathing problems, and seizures in kids and can be fatal at high doses, Kemp noted. Chronic exposure can lead to heart problems, asthma, developmental and behavioural disorders, an increased risk of addiction to other drugs. 

In the study, women were 60 per cent more likely than men to recognise that nicotine was “definitely harmful” to kids. Men, meanwhile, were 40 per cent more likely than women to think nicotine was not harmful or say they were not sure about the risks. 

Compared to adults with a college degree, people with only a high school diploma were more than twice as likely to say nicotine was not harmful to kids, researchers report in Pediatrics. And when people did not finish high school, they were three times more likely to think nicotine was not dangerous, compared to college graduates. 

Race was also associated with how adults thought about the risks of nicotine exposure for kids. 

Compared to white adults, Hispanic and African American survey participants were much less likely to believe nicotine was definitely harmful. 

Most often, kids are exposed to nicotine from a parent or another person who lives in their home, Kemp said. In the study, approximately one-third of tobacco users had at least one young child at home. 

One limitation of the study is that the survey focused only on the general question of whether nicotine might be harmful for children under 13 years old, the authors note. Researchers lacked specific data on how people thought about the nicotine risk of specific tobacco products. 

Another drawback is that the study lacks data on what is behind people’s beliefs about nicotine, so it is unclear how much some individuals might say it is not dangerous for kids out of denial versus out of a genuine lack of understanding of the risks, said Geetha Raghuveer, a cardiologist at Children’s Mercy Hospital and professor at the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Medicine. 

Men, for example, might be less aware of the risks than women because they are less likely to take kids to checkups and hear about the dangers first-hand from a pediatrician, Raghuveer, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

Less educated adults, meanwhile, might really be less aware of the risks,” Raghuveer added. 

“While dangers of cigarette smoking to those who smoke are well publicised, those of second hand smoke or accidental ingestion of tobacco products are less well known generally,” Raghuveer said. 

Many parents are also unaware of the particular risks posed by liquid nicotine used in e-cigarettes, said Annie Lintzenich Andrews of the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. 

“Nicotine poisonings due to children ingesting e-cigarette liquid are becoming more frequent,” Andrews, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

“Proximity to nicotine products combined with adults underestimating risk of exposure could lead to higher risk of adverse events due to children’s exposure to nicotine products,” Andrews added. “Nicotine users would be an ideal target population for future public health interventions to reduce children’s exposure to nicotine.” 

LOS ANGELES — It turns out Dwayne Johnson was no match for Dracula and company.

“Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” topped the domestic box office charts with $44.1 million from 4,267 locations, while Dwayne Johnson’s “Skyscraper” washed up with a paltry $25.5 from 3,782 theatres.

Sony’s animated family feature picked up $46.4 million overseas this weekend for a global start of $100 million, including Amazon Prime showings. The third instalment of the franchise — featuring the voices of Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Andy Samberg and Kathryn Hahn — carried an $80 million production budget.

“We’re thrilled,” Sony’s president of worldwide distribution Josh Greenstein said. “We took the No. 1 slot this weekend with a tremendous amount of competition.”

As the first film in the series debuting during summer (its predecessors opened in September), Greenstein said the studio hopes “Hotel Transylvania 3” will benefit in coming weeks from kids being out of school.

The opening for “Hotel Transylvania 3” represents the second-best for the franchise. The first film, 2012’s “Hotel Transylvania”, bowed with $42 million, while the sequel started with $48 million.

“Skyscraper’s” debut was not enough to secure the No. 2 slot, which went to the second weekend of Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp” with $29.5 million from 4,206 locations. The superhero sequel picked up another $35.3 million internationally, taking its global total to $284 million. Domestically, the Paul Rudd and Evangeline Lilly-led tentpole earned $133 million, while overseas it has made $151 million.

Universal and Legendary’s “Skyscraper” checked in third place, coming in way under projections. With $25 million, “Skyscraper” represents the lowest opening for a Johnson-starrer in recent years. The studio is banking on his massive international following to justify the film’s pricey $125 million budget. It bows in China, where the action film is set, next weekend.

Universal’s head of domestic distribution Jim Orr emphasised “Skyscraper’s” reliance on overseas markets.

“The domestic results are part of a broader global play,” Orr said. “I think we’re going to have a great run. It’s not all about opening weekend.”

“Incredibles 2” landed in fourth place with $16 million in its fifth weekend, while “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” rounded out the top five with $15.5 million in its fourth frame. However, that order could fluctuate when final numbers are tallied on Monday.

Disney-Pixar’s “Incredibles 2” is now the ninth-highest domestic release of all time with $535.8 million. The animated family film has amassed $856.9 million worldwide, including $321 million from overseas markets.

At the specialty box office, A24’s “Eighth Grade” generated the best per-screen-average of the year with $63,071. Bo Burnham wrote and directed the critically lauded feature, which made $255,000 when it opened on four screens. The coming-of-age film stars Elsie Fisher navigating her last week of middle school.

Meanwhile, Annapurna’s “Sorry to Bother You” nabbed seventh place at the domestic box office. Boots Riley’s satirical comedy pocketed $4.3 million when it expanded to 805 theatres. In total, it has earned $5.3 million.

Gus Van Sant’s “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot” premiered in four theatres with $83,120. Joaquin Phoenix stars in the Amazon Studios comedy, which earned $20,780 per theatre.

The summer of theatrical documentaries is still in full swing, as “Won’t You Be My Neighbour” earned $1.8 million in its sixth weekend. Morgan Neville’s film centring on Mister Rogers has grossed $15.8 million, making it the highest grossing documentary of the year, as well as the 16th-highest earning of all time.

Roadside Attractions and Miramax’s “Whitney” pulled in another $535,385 from 208 screens. The Whitney Houston documentary has made $2.6 million to date.

Heatwaves can sap productivity by slowing down thinking, even in the young and healthy, a small study suggests. 

Harvard researchers found that during a summer heat wave, students living in dorms without air conditioning consistently scored lower on daily cognitive tests over the course of nearly a week than students in buildings with AC. 

“For the first time, we’ve been able to find a detrimental effect of heat waves in young healthy adults,” said lead author Jose Guillermo Cedeno Laurent, a research fellow and associate director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. 

“Among that group [who had no AC] there were longer reaction times and lower accuracy compared to an identical group of students who lived with air conditioning,” he told Reuters Health in an e-mail. 

The researchers followed 44 undergraduate and graduate students in their late teens and early 20s for 12 consecutive days during July of 2016. Twenty-four of the students resided in buildings constructed in the 1990s that were equipped with central air conditioning, while 20 lived in Neo-Georgian-style low-rise brick buildings built between 1930 and 1950 with no cooling system. 

The researchers designed their experiment so that the 12 days included a five-day heat-wave, preceded by five days with more moderate temperatures, and followed by two days of cooler weather. Temperatures inside the building without air conditioning averaged 26.3ºC and ranged as high as 30.4ºC. 

Average temperatures in the air-conditioned buildings were 21.4ºC ranging up to 25ºC. 

Each morning the students took two tests of cognition on their smartphones. One test, which required students to correctly identify the colour of displayed words, measured their reaction speed and ability to concentrate and block out distractions. The other test, which presented basic arithmetic problems, measured mental quickness and working memory. 

During the heat wave, students in buildings with no cooling had 13.4 per cent slower reaction times on the colour-word tests and 13.3 per cent lower scores on the math tests, compared to those living in dorms with air conditioning. 

Much previous research on the effects of extremely hot weather has been in vulnerable populations that are at risk of dying: either the very young or the very old, the study authors note in PLOS Medicine. 

“This study looks at the effects of heat in a population we all think of as generally being resilient,” said study coauthor Joe Allen, co-director of Centre for Climate, Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. 

And while much media coverage has been on people dying prematurely, “the fact is, millions are impacted by heat waves”, Allen said. “And with climate change, and the increased duration of heat waves, we’re going to see an increased impact on performance and learning.” 

The new study “is adding to a very quickly growing literature on the effects of heat exposure on student outcomes”, said Jisung Park, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. “It’s very consistent with other studies showing that hot temperatures, whether at home or in the classroom, can have a detrimental effect on learning.” 

No one knows exactly why we do not seem to be as smart when we’re hot. But it may be that the body is pulling blood away from certain parts of the brain as it tries to cool itself down, said Park, who was not involved in the current study. 

“Of course, the elephant in the room is that heat waves are going to be much more frequent,” Park said. “While a 2 degree increase in average temperature may not sound like much, an additional 30 days of temperatures above 35ºC each year may sound more urgent.”

First launched in 2010, face-lifted in 2014 and now due to be replaced with a new model expected in Jordan for 2019, Volvo’s somewhat long-serving second generation S60 compact executive saloon, however, remains a classy, comfortable and smooth ride.

Innovative when it first appeared, the S60 is packed with a host of standard and optional driver assistance and safety systems, and as driven in second to entry-level S60 T3 guise, it features a confident and capable down-sized 1.5-litre engine that is more efficient and powerful than the 1.6 it replaced.

Understated and elegant

Developed during Volvo’s last push to breakthrough into the premium end of the automotive market, the S60 has an understated sense of elegance, and is a car appreciated best by those in the know. Best looking from front three quarter views, with a noticeably snouty and assertive grille, the face-lifted S60, however, adds more heavily browed, slimmer and more dramatic single-piece headlights, in place of the 2010 models more rounded two-piece headlights. The revised model also features slimmer and broader lower intakes and other restyled front and rear bumper elements.

Less complex yet more dramatic in current iteration, the Volvo S60’s protruding grille is flanked by pinched V-shaped surfacing, while its bulging bonnet ridge flows from grille to A-pillar base. Meanwhile, subtly rising side crease and waistline converge with a rakish roofline at short and pert rear deck. From rear view the S60 features stylish boomerang-like rear lights, somewhat reminiscent of the Maserati 3200GT. For the facelift version, the S60 received slim horizontal bumper-integrated dual exhaust ports. However, more rear wheel-arch definition would have lent the S60 a more grounded and assertive stance.

Mid-range muscle

Powered by turbocharged direct injection 1.5-litre 4-cylinder engine driving the front wheels since its last model refresh, the current S60 T3 develops 150BHP at 5,000rpm and 184lb/ft torque through a wide 1,700-4,000rpm plateau. Though designed with a bigger bore to stroke design like most high revving engines, the over-square design T3 is, however, low revving. Efficient and smooth even without the use of a balancer shaft, the T3 is also usefully flexible in mid-range. Frugal with 5.8l/100km combined cycle fuel consumption, its CO2 emissions are similarly low at 134g/km.

Downsized, yet more capable, the current S60 T3 proved quicker and more responsive than expected, and weighing in at 1.6-tonnes, it nonetheless performs confidently, and is at its best when riding on its broad, muscular and versatile mid-range wave of torque, but becomes somewhat less eager in delivery the farther it strays beyond 5,000rpm. Despite a brief moment of turbo lag at idling, the T3 livens up as its turbo spools and delivery wells up. And with a hint of torque-steer as tyres put power to tarmac, the S60 T3 accelerates through 0-100km/h in 5.8-seconds, on the way to a 210km/h maximum.

Eager, smooth 

and supple

At its best being hustled along in rich and responsive mid-range, the S60 T3 driving character is that of a refined and comfortable compact executive with somewhat hot hatch-like front-drive handling. 

Tidy into corners, the S60 grips in well — with its smooth and light steering providing a good compromise between refinement and road feel. Eager turning in, the S60 suspension setup is also seemingly eager to shift weight to the rear and outside to tighten a cornering line, which the stability controls then rein in with similar enthusiasm by cutting power, but with less intervention and more fluency when in a less cautious driving setting.

Riding on 215/55R16 tyres, the S60 walks a fine line between braking and out right grip on the one hand, and steering feel and ride compliance on the other. In most situations it works well, with most bumps, lumps and cracks dispatched with supple absorption. 

On poorly maintained low traction tarmac, more mechanical grip would be welcome, in lieu of electronic assistance, but the upside is that the S60 drives mostly with sporty agility and a more comfortable ride than many competitors. Meanwhile, body roll is kept well in control while vertical reflexes are settled on rebound from dips and crests.

Confident quality

Confident and stable and reassuring at speed, the S60 provided a good quality of ride, cabin refinement and isolation from road imperfections and noise. 

Inside, its driving position is well-adjustable with deep lowering and supportive seats and versatile steering adjustment. Spacious in front with generous headroom even when fitted with a sunroof, the S60’s rear space and 380-litre boot volume are decent for its segment. Ergonomics were also good, with user-friendly controls, symmetric layouts and a new, more modern instrument cluster design since first driven at its initial launch.

Well-finished with quality leathers, soft textures, metallic trim and wood, the Volvo S60 has a well-built and conservatively elegant feel inside. Functional yet pleasant, it features usefully generous storage spaces and a signature curved “floating” front console. 

Competitively priced, the S60 T3 comes with an extensive equipment list as available in Jordan, including USB connectivity, Isofix child seat latches and Volvo’s City Safety driver assistance system, which can avoid or mitigate collisions at up to 50km/h, in addition to numerous comfort, convenience, infotainment and safety features.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.5-litre, turbocharged, transverse 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 82 x 70.9mm

Compression ratio: 10.5:1

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, direct injection, variable valve timing

Gearbox: 6-speed automatic, front-wheel-drive

Ratios: 1st 4.044:1; 2nd 2.371:1; 3rd 1.556:1; 4th 1.159:1; 5th 0.852:1; 6th 0.672:1

Reverse/final drive: 3.193:1/3.365

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 150 (152) [112] @5,000rpm

Specific power: 100.1BHP/litre

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 184 (250) @1,700-4,000rpm

Specific torque: 166.9Nm/litre

Rev limit: 6,000rpm

0-100km/h: 8.6-seconds

Top speed: 210km/h

Fuel consumption, combined: 5.8-litres/100km 

CO2 emissions, combined: 134g/km 

Fuel capacity: 67.5-litres

Length: 4,635mm

Width: 1,866mm

Height: 1484mm

Wheelbase: 2,776mm

Overhang, F/R; 943/916mm

Track, F/R: 1,578/1,575mm

Ground clearance: 136mm

Aerodynamic drag co-efficient: 0.28

Headroom, F/R: 999/951mm

Legroom, F/R; 1,064/852mm

Shoulder room, F/R: 1,447/1,401mm

Loading height: 656mm

Luggage volume, min: 380-litres

Kerb weight: 1,625kg

Steering: Power-assisted rack & pinion

Turning Circle: 11.3-metres

Lock-to-lock: 2.71-turns

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts/multi-link, anti-roll bars

Brakes: Ventilated discs, 316mm/discs, 308mm

Braking distance, 100-0km/h: 37-metres

Tyres: 215/55R16

Price, on-the-road: JD30,900-34,900 (w/ third party insurance)

Today’s moms-to-be are more likely than women from their mothers’ generation to become depressed while pregnant, a study suggests. 

Stresses of the modern world may be driving the increase, said the study’s lead author Rebecca Pearson, a lecturer in psychiatric epidemiology at the University of Bristol in the UK. 

“Our data suggest that the symptoms driving the increase in total scores were those related to feeling overwhelmed and stress and anxiety rather than feelings of being down and unmotivated,” Pearson said. “This supports theories that it is potentially a consequence of the fast-paced modern world.” 

While postpartum depression is a well-known problem, in the past decade there has been a paradigm shift to recognising that symptoms usually appear before the baby is born, said Dr Priya Gopalan, chief of psychiatry at Magee-Womens Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre. 

“What we traditionally called postpartum depression actually starts in the third trimester,” said Gopalan, who is not affiliated with the new research. “The paradigm shift has done away with all the myths that have been perpetuated about pregnancy being a happy time for all moms.” 

As reported in JAMA Network Open, Pearson’s team compared 2,390 women who had babies in the early 1990s to 180 women of the next generation who were either daughters of the original group or were partners of sons of the original group. The average age in both sets of women was about 22 or 23 years. 

Among the older generation, 408, or 17 per cent, had high scores on depression screening tests, as compared to 45, or 25 per cent, of the current generation. 

Daughters of women who became depressed during pregnancy had an especially high risk of developing prenatal depression themselves. In fact, they were three times as likely to develop prenatal depression as women with mothers who did not become depressed in pregnancy. 

Factors that Pearson suspects are driving higher rates of depression in the younger generation include, “the rise in the female work force putting pressures on young women to juggle families and careers, social media and the internet , which can increase social comparisons and information overload, financial pressures, especially house prices and the need for joint incomes to afford life in the UK, and less family and community support and increased pressures on intimate partner relationships”. 

Are findings in British women applicable to American women? “Absolutely,” Gopalan said. “We have definitely seen increased rates of depression over time. This is a thing in the US as well.” 

Gopalan and other experts now recommend that women who develop depression during pregnancy get treatment, including medication if needed, to protect both the women’s health and that of their babies. 

“We have lots of studies that have come out in the last three years comparing depressed moms who didn’t get treatment to those who were depressed but did get treatment,” Gopalan said. “We now know that depressed moms who take medication have babies that do better in terms of development. Depressed moms [without treatment] just don’t bond with their babies like non-depressed moms would.” 

Like Pearson, Inger Burnett-Zeigler believes that a lot of younger women’s depressive symptoms are driven by anxiety. 

“They’re anxious about expectations around motherhood and balancing that with their other obligations,” said Burnett-Zeigler, a clinical psychologist and an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “A lot of them are feeling overwhelmed and are worried about who is going to help them. They are worried about whether the baby will be OK and whether they will be OK as moms.”

Another factor is that people do not live as close to family as they once did, Burnett-Zeigler said.

“A lot are not surrounded by family to support them,” she said. “Even though they have partners, they still feel isolated.”

Clinical Pathologist and  Laboratory Medicine Specialist

Women are living under chronic stress. Meeting deadlines, growing debt, driving in rush hour, grocery shopping, preparing family meals, managing family disputes…it is all contributing to burnout. 

When your body is on constant alert, your brain thinks your life is in danger and goes into “fight or flight” response. It stimulates the release of adrenaline and cortisol. These stress hormones provides instant energy for five to ten minutes, allowing you to react swiftly to dangerous situations.

The extra energy is provided by raising your blood sugar and fat levels for fighting and fleeing. If you do not, the fat and glucose swimming around your system get deposited as fat around the middle of your body. And if you eat something sugary or fatty as a consequence of the poststress appetite surge, any weight you gain as a result will be around your waist too. The fat around your middle (apple shape) increases your risk of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and cancer, more so than fat on your thighs or bottom (pear shape). 

Are you stressed? 

If you complain of the following symptoms, your cortisol levels are likely to be high:

• A tendency to gain fat around your tummy Increased appetite and cravings for sweets, breads, cakes and caffeine 

• Frequent colds and infections

• Teeth grinding

• High cholesterol

• Blood sugar swings

• Digestive problems

• Headaches, muscle aches and pains like shoulder and neck pain (stress hormones will keep certain muscles tense, ready for fight or flight)

• Hair loss

• Irregular periods or no periods

• Difficulty in concentrating or forgetfulness

• Depression

• Increased premenstrual symptoms (PMS)

• Low sex drive

• Waking up in the middle of the night, finding it hard to get back to sleep, or the inability to sleep well

How can you measure fat around your waist?

Take a measuring tape and compare your waist measurement (at the narrowest point) with your hip measurement (at the widest point). Divide your waist figure by your hip figure to get what is known as your waist-hip ratio. If your calculation is greater than 0.8 cm then you are apple shaped and need to take action.

Doing lab tests

Check your cortisol, cholesterol, blood sugar and insulin levels. Chronic stress will cause higher or lower than normal levels of cortisol hormone levels. Your cholesterol, sugar and insulin levels are likely to be high too which is medically called Insulin resistance. This is a pre-diabetic state and should be treated to avoid developing diabetes and further weight gain or health issues.

Seeing nutritionist 

Insulin resistance needs a healthy eating plan, not dieting. Try frequent small meals that include protein, good fats and less sugar and avoid starvation which puts the body in stress mode and further increases fat storage.

Addressing and managing stress 

Now that you know how detrimental stress is to your health, it is time to hit the gym, join a yoga class, or practice meditation. If you have sleeping problems or anxiety attacks, acupuncture helps too. Cut down your caffeine intake. While a caffeine boost may seem to help combat stress at first, it can exacerbate anxiety and other stress-related signs and symptoms in many ways. Caffeine consumption can more than double your blood levels of the stress hormone cortisol! Go for herbal teas instead of black tea or coffee to lower your cortisol levels.

Try herbs and supplements*

• Siberian Ginseng is an adaptogen (a substance that increases resistance to stress) that supports your adrenal glands which produces cortisol

• Vitamin C is crucial for adrenal gland function. The more cortisol is made, the more vitamin C is used. Research has shown that people who have good levels of vitamin C burn 30 per cent more fat when they exercise

• B vitamins and Zinc are important to produce your stress hormones. B vitamins are needed for sugar metabolism (the process of turning the energy from the foods you eat into fuel your body’s cells need to grow and function)

• Chromium and Alpha lipoic acid are very important for losing that apple shape. They are needed for the metabolism of sugar and in helping insulin take glucose into the cells. Without chromium, insulin is less effective at controlling blood sugar levels and glucose levels rise

* Be sure to consult your healthcare professional before taking any herb or supplement

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine

Athletes who drink chocolate milk during exercise or after a hard workout may recover just as quickly as they would with sports drinks, a research review suggests. 

What people eat and drink during intense exercise and afterward can impact how well their muscles recover and how rapidly their body replaces fluids and electrolytes lost during the workout, previous research has found. 

Most studies assessing whether drinks with carbohydrates and electrolytes, or with protein, might aid recovery have been too small to draw firm conclusions about which beverages are the best option, the authors of the new review write in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 

For their analysis, the researchers examined data from 12 small studies that compared how chocolate milk influenced several markers of exercise recovery, compared to a placebo beverage or a sports drink. 

Athletes did exercise tests — mostly running or cycling — and then researchers looked at recovery markers like how long it takes to become exhausted during workouts, athletes’ perceived exertion levels, heart rate and levels of lactic acid and an enzyme known as creatine kinase in the blood — which both rise with intense activity. 

Overall, the study found that chocolate milk lengthened time to exhaustion, and improved perceived exertion, heart rate or levels of lactic acid in the blood at least as much as other beverages. 

“Chocolate milk contains carbohydrates, proteins, fats, flavonoids, electrolytes, and some vitamins which make this drink a good choice for recovery in athletes,” said senior study author Dr Amin Salehi-Abargouei of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences in Yazd, Iran. 

In some instances, chocolate milk appeared better than alternative drinks, the researchers report. 

Time to exhaustion with chocolate milk drinkers was almost 1 minute longer than with nutrition-free placebo beverages and about six minutes longer than with sports drinks. 

Lactic acid levels, an indication of exertion, were lower for chocolate milk drinkers than for people who consumed placebo drinks, the study also found. 

“The take-home message is that chocolate milk is a low-cost, delicious, and palatable option for recovery and provides either similar or superior effects compared with commercial drinks,” Salehi-Abargouei said by e-mail. 

Even though this analysis pooled data from several smaller studies to get more robust results, it still included less than 150 people. Results from running or cycling exercise tests also might not reflect how chocolate milk would impact recovery from other sports. 

Athletes can also probably boost recovery without chocolate milk, noted Kim Spaccarotella, a biology researcher at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, who was not involved in the study. 

“Any food that provides carbohydrate, protein, fluid and electrolytes and is well-tolerated will help promote recovery,” Spaccarotella said by e-mail. “In addition to chocolate milk, other popular choices are cereal with milk, smoothies, sandwiches or soup. A small meal will even work, if the athlete is feeling hungry.” 

How well chocolate milk works compared to other beverages also depends on the alternatives being considered, said Mike Saunders, director of the Human Performance Laboratory at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. 

“For example, plain water would not be as effective at promoting fuel replenishment [due to lack of carbohydrates], muscle repair [due to lack of protein], or fluid retention/rehydration [due to low electrolyte content] in comparison to chocolate milk [which has all three],” Saunders, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. “Traditional sports drinks have the carbohydrates and electrolytes, but usually no protein.” 

The best choice for a workout recovery drink depends a lot on the individual athlete and the type of workout they do, Saunders said. 

“Someone at the gym who completes a 20-minute jog might be advised to have a glass of water after exercise so they don’t undermine their weight-management goals with unnecessary calories,” Saunders said. “But a distance runner who has completed a hard 24-kilometre run and has a session of high-intensity intervals to do the next morning could obtain meaningful benefits from a recovery beverage like chocolate milk.”

WASHINGTON — Babies who are given solid foods as well as breast milk from the age of three months show signs of sleeping better than infants fed only with milk until they are six months old, a new study carried out in Britain suggests.

While the practice did not provide for totally uninterrupted nights of sleep, the study of 1,303 children in England and Wales between 2009 and 2012 showed that babies given solids earlier than currently recommended did improve their sleep patterns.

The parents of half the children were encouraged to feed their babies solids, such as white fish or wheat, before six months, while the other half were told to stick to breast milk alone until that time.

The results, published on Monday in JAMA Pediatrics, showed that the babies who started earlier on solids slept longer and woke up fewer times in the night.

The effect was slight but notable. The study showed that feeding babies solids brought down the median number of times they woke in the night from 2.01 to 1.74 times per night.

The duration of sleep also differed, with a peak of 16 minutes more sleep per night by the age of six months.

“In a randomised clinical trial, the early introduction of solids into the infant’s diet was associated with longer sleep duration, less frequent waking at night, and a reduction in reported very serious sleep problems,” the report said.

The researchers from King’s College, London, and the University of London admitted it was possible that mothers giving their babies solids may have responded to their questions in a more positive manner, having expected a positive effect, since many parents already believe that the practice encourages better sleep. 

But they said it was unlikely that the bias would have persisted beyond six months.