Are we worried enough?

A new report by some Israeli people in white coats has some interesting findings about worrying. Researchers claim that people in their 40s and 50s who worry a lot about their problems (at home and/or at work), had a significantly lower likelihood of dementia in their 80s. How much lower? How does 42% lower (than the care-free) grab you? The benefits were proportionately reduced the less you worried.

Great. Now I'm worried that if I don't worry too much I'm going to lose the bits of my mind that haven't been nuked by my cell phone.

Cell phones = death?

I was chatting with a friend the other day. I told her I wasn't getting good reception.

Her: "Your talking on a cell phone?!!!! I hope you're using one of those wireless sets."

Me: "Uh, oh."

I had stopped worrying about the whole cell phones cause brain cancer thing a while back when some pretty definitive sounding studies by people in white coats determined that there was no evidence of causation between cell phone use and brain tumors, brain cancer, or brain farts.

But now the world is abuzz with worry thanks to a memo from some guy to his staff warning them not to use their cellphones without those annoying earbud things because of the potential cancer risk. Turns out the guy, Ronald B. Herberman, is director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. Okay, he couldn't get a job at Harvard, but it's still pretty official sounding.

According to the memo: "Recently I have become aware of the growing body of literature linking long-term cell phone use to possible adverse health effects including cancer," Dr. Ronald Herberman said in the memorandum. "Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cell phone use."

He says that children, especially, should have their exposure to cellphones limited because their brains are still developing.

I have to admit that the last bit makes me wonder if this whole thing isn't an elaborate ruse to get his kids to stop running up his cell phone bill...

Your Counter Top May Be Radioactive

Does your newly rehabbed kitchen have that special glow? Turns out it may be because it's radioactive!

You read it right. According to the New York Times, some people in white coats have declared that some granite counter tops are emitting radiation (including lung cancer causing radon) at 100 times background levels.

The paper reports that worried homeowners are spending $100-300 to test their kitchens for radon and other nasty stuff, and chucking the whole thing into the trash if the numbers are bad.

Fortunately, Worried Dad is not too worried, because we have plain old Formica tops that have not, as of this writing, been proven to cause cancer...

Big Elmo Is Watching You

A story in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal (nicely clipped by Bronxnews) explains that the friendly companies that have filled our little ones' heads full of the sweet taste of desire for tv crapola like Dora the Explorer ("I'll teach your kids the same three words in Spanish every day!"), Elmo (please tell me Jim Henson wasn't responsible for this), Teletubbies (Falwell was right: Tinky Winky is gay), Thomas the Tank Engine (we miss you George), etc, are worried that you might hire someone to come to your kids birthday party pretending to be one of these creatures.

How worried are they? Worried enough to sue the pants of your entertainer. One owner of a kids' party shop received a friendly note from Marvel Inc, stating that they were aware of “unauthorized costumed Spider-Man, Hulk and Wolverine appearance services,” and added, “Marvel has no choice but to seek legal recourse against your business.” She has spent $30,000 defending herself in lawsuits.

In response to parental complaints that the companies create these insatiable desires in our kids only to deny them the chance to pretend that they actually get to meet the critters on their freaking birthdays, the companies respond that they can spend $50 a pop when they show up at huge arena shows. Gee thanks.

The companies won't even sell the costumes to entertainers, reportedly for fear that the characters image might be misused (but slapping it on a diaper is okay?). The performers have been reduced to dressing up like scary imitation characters like "Squishy Guy" instead of Sponge Bob.

One kid who wanted this girl



to show up at her birthday shrieked in terror when she was met by this girl


The horror. The horror.

Your wild youth messed up your kid's genes

How your kid turns out is a result of nurture and nature. As far as I've been concerned, Cinderella can blame me and the Wife for all our parental sins to the therapist, but she can't blame us for the genetic stuff. We put in all our chips and spun the wheel.

Or so I thought.

New research in the field known as epigenetics by people in white coats suggests that our behavior can affect our genes. The jury is still out, but the evidence is mounting that youthful indescretions can mark our kids and grandkids. Drowning your sorrows in Ben & Jerry's today means fat camp for junior tomorrow, and so on.

Rather unhelpfully, one study noted that the grandsons of men in an isolated Swedish village that had survived starvation during war lived longer than men who hadn't. Doesn't it always work out that way?

Germophobe? If not, this article can help

Another classic worry article from Parents Magazine: "Germ Warfare: How to Keep Your Kids Healthy." The gist of the article is that germs are everywhere, but you can fight back. The article helpfully notes that if you aren't afraid of your kitchen (sink, counter, refrigerator, cutting boards), bathroom (towels, sink, tub, toilet), supermarket, atm, elevator, pens, office, etc, then, (as Yoda once told Luke) "you will be ... you will be."

Some gems for those considering going over to the Mysophobia dark side:

• Using cashier pens: Pens provided to sign credit card purchases are "superb carriers of cold viruses," Dr. Schachter says, as are pens in doctors' offices and at the bank, and those offered by delivery people -- so carry your own!
  
• At the ATM and in the elevator: Press all buttons with a finger or knuckle that you're unlikely to use to touch your eyes, nose, or mouth. Better yet, use a key on your key ring or a pen from your bag.
  
• Washing your hands: Unless the liquid hand soap in the public bathroom is in its own sealed bag (chances are it isn't), it's likely a breeding fiesta for bacteria. Rinse well with warm water and use your own hand sanitizer.

And finally "Avoid close contact with people who have the flu, advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Droplets in sneezes and coughs can travel up to 6 feet. "

Since it's so hard to detect if people have the flu before they get within six feet of you, it's just safer to just stick to a classic hoop skirt.

Broccoli Isn't As Good For You As It Used To Be

I'm not the best parent. My daughter, Cinderella, has the bedtime habits of a vampire. She watches too many movies, and cadges too many sweet treats. At restaurants she acts like a coked up hostess, flitting from table to table, rather than the prim and proper little girls that occupy every other table at every restaurant I've ever been to.

But I've gotten her to eat -- and like -- broccoli, damnit!

But now this. Research shows that broccoli, carrots, and all the other good-for-you fruit and veggie foods have less good stuff in them than they used to.

Since 1940, when people first started keeping track of this stuff, broccoli has lost 75% of its calcium, carrots 75% of their magnesium. There are other declines across the veggie and fruit spectrum. The most likely culprits are factory farming and plant breeding. Some guy in a white coat says we now have to eat more of the stuff to get the same nutritional boost. Gee, thanks. Can't we just inject all the missing nutrients into chocolate?

Low Fat and Skim Milk Does a Body Bad

Cinderalla wants a little sibling to kick around. This means that the Wife and I have to think about reproduction. Fertility = worry times 1 gazillion.

Turns out, according to people in white coats at Harvard, drinking less than full fat milk can reduce fertility. In an 8-year study of over 18,000 women between the ages of 24-42 (married, premenopausal with no history of infertility), those

who ate more than two portions a day of low fat dairy foods were 85 per cent more likely to be infertile due to ovulatory disorders than those who only ate it less than once a week.

Conversely they found that women who ate full-fat dairy foods, including ice cream, more than once per day had a 25 per cent reduced risk of infertility due to ovulatory disorders compared to those who ate full-fat dairy foods only once a week

The authors concluded that women trying to get pregnant should increase their intake of full-fat dairy, but keep their overall calorie intake the same. Good luck with that!

Other white coated people who couldn't get a job at Harvard have also done similarly huge studies of men and reported that men with diets heavy in low-fat dairy show a higher malignancy risk of prostate cancer compared with those who consume more full-fat dairy.

Kids Jewelry Is Still Bad

Remember the lead toy scare from a little while back? It doesn't get mentioned in the papers anymore, so I guess our friends at the CPSC have sorted it all out.


Uh oh. Perusing the CPSC recall list for July, we find the following (all made in China):

Bead Bazaar "It's a Girl Thing." "The jewelry features a variety of charms including flowers, shoes, letters and butterflies." Oh, and lead. Lots and lots of lead.

A nice little book by Parragon Books called The Magic Ballet Slippers comes with a necklace with a silver-colored chain with a silver-colored charm consisting of a pair of ballet shoes and a bow. And lead. Lots and lots of lead. Still for sale on Amazon -- I just posted a warning.

Action Products International puts out a neat series of craft kits for making shoelace and necklaces charms. "The craft kits contain components (i.e., charms, beads, wire, clasps) to assemble necklaces, jewelry accessories, or charms that can be hooked on shoelaces, backpacks, or used as zipper pulls." And lead. Lots and lots of lead. The kits are aptly named "Curiosity Kits," because, you know, curiosity killed the cat. With lead.

Kids Food Is Bad

According to a new study by a British scientific journal, 89% of food in supermarkets specifically targeted to kids have low or no nutritious value. To confront this, it appears that food marketers have decided to increase the number of dubious nutritional claims about their products. The investigators spotted a pizza carton labeled "Source of calcium" but made no mention that it was loaded with salt, and a jar of peanut butter mixed with chocolate was claimed to be a "source of six essential nutrients" (sure, peanut butter and chocolate, but what are the other four???).

Then again, the journal was called Obesity Reviews. I bet they say that about Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs too.

Worried in Mexico

I'm on vacation with Cinderella and the wife in Mexico. Vacations are a great time to get away from your everyday home worries and worry about some dangers you don't usually have to consider.

Things I've been worrying about while on vacation

• Jellyfish
  
  
• Sunburns
  
  
• Crazy drivers and bad roads
  
  
• Child drowning in swimming pool
  
  
• Child drowning while being sucked into the ocean undertow
  
  
• Contracting hemorrhagic dengue fever from mosquito bites
  

Things that I should have worried about (because they actually happened, or nearly did) but forgot to

• Pissing off Moctezuma and causing him to exact revenge (at least the horchata from that street vendor was yummy!)
  
  
• Forgetting to take my glasses off in the ocean and nearly losing them
  
  
• Child licking spilled chocolate milk off of a deck chair and potentially catching scary diseases from bat poop
  

Costco Helps You Prepare for the Worst

The friendly folks at Costco have come up with a solution to every worried parent's dilemma: what to eat during the coming Apocalypse?

The new Emergency Food Kit:

Basic preparation will impact the probability of your family’s survival in an emergency. Delicious and Easy to Prepare. Each bucket contains 275 servings of Pre-mixed and Pre-seasoned 100 % Vegetarian and Vitamin Fortified food for you and your family. With a 20 year long shelf life, this kit is perfect for the preparation of natural disasters such as hurricane, tornado, earthquakes or even a camping/hunting trip.

I guess some people are really bad at camping.

Gift packaging is available, but delivery takes 7-10 days, so please plan ahead at least a little bit...

Happy 4th of July! Try Not To Blow Yourself Up

Today we celebrate Independence Day, when a group of worried patriots dumped into the Boston harbor a shipment of tea that was suspected of causing a salmonella outbreak.

From our friends at the CPSC, I bring you a few heartwarming tales of pyrotechnics gone bad:

• A 32-year-old man was launching aerial fireworks from a platform on a driveway. The first round of the ten shot device went into the air, but then the device tipped over pointing the remaining fireworks at the people who were watching the display. The remaining fireworks were launched into the crowd. There were six people burned ranging in age from 4 to 32 years old.
  
• A 15-year-old male lit an M-80 inside his house and it exploded in his hand. The tips of two of his fingers were blown off.
  
• A 31-year-old man and his 32-year-old brother were involved in an explosion in an apartment complex. The victims were illegally manufacturing fireworks when the explosion occurred. The victims were reported to have purchased pyrotechnic components over the internet. One victim died six days after being admitted to the hospital and the other brother died two weeks after the incident.

Happy 4th!

Swimming Pools: Summer Fun or Cauldron of Death?

Summer heat means it's time to head for a relaxing dip in the pool. Not according to a worrying article from WebMD. The biggest dangers are recreational water illnesses (RWIs):

RWI refers to any illness or infection caused by organisms that contaminate water in pools, lakes, hot tubs, and oceans, resulting in diarrhea, skin rashes, swimmer's ear, and other conditions. And they are on the rise. The rate has more than doubled in the past 10 years, according to data from the CDC.

"No one who swims is safe from RWIs," says Alan Greene, MD, an assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., and author of several books including From First Kicks to First Steps.

Okay, but doesn't chlorine keep it clean?

Chlorine in properly disinfected pools kills most germs that can cause RWIs in less than an hour, but it takes longer to kill some germs, such as cryptosporidium, which can survive for days in even a properly disinfected pool.

What to do if you come down with one of these nasties? Antibiotics are the usual treatment, but the article notes that they are over-prescribed, leading to increased resistance to antibiotics. The article warns that avoiding the pool altogether isn't a good alternative, considering America's obesity epidemic.

Happy swimming!

Drug-Resistant Bacteria Can Kill You

Staph infections are on the rise. Antibiotics don't work on it. According to a very
worry-inducing article in Parents Magazine

In some cases, the germ can turn a tiny skin wound into a potentially life-threatening boil or abscess. In others, it morphs into a systemic infection that causes deadly forms of pneumonia, as well as muscle, bone, and joint disease. What's most alarming is the fact that this form of staph doesn't respond to commonly used antibiotics -- and it seems to be growing ever more virulent.

In a few years, MRSA has turned into the single most common identifiable cause of skin and soft-tissue infections in emergency rooms, reports the New England Journal of Medicine. One recent study, conducted in 11 cities, found that MRSA caused nearly 60 percent of skin infections treated in hospital emergency rooms.

Although the subhead at the top of the article claims that it will tell you how to "protect your child from this potentially deadly germ," it basically says that we're all doomed.

Beyond washing your hands a lot,

there's not much parents can do -- except get used to the many unanswered questions that still surround MRSA. Alyson Martin closely watches over baby Heather -- now 14 months old -- but she has come to terms with the fact that she'll probably never know how or why her infant contracted MRSA: "It's a mystery I'm just going to have to live with."

Overeating Is Easy

According to the NYT, a recent study showed that when junk food makers put their products in smaller packages, we are just inclined to eat more of it.

In one experiment, students were primed to think about their body shape, then were given potato chips and left to watch television. They ate nearly twice as many chips when given nine small bags as when given two large ones. They also hesitated less before opening the small bags.

I guess you might as well just get the big bag.

More Exploding Toy Helicopters

Another toy helicopter recall due to flaming batteries. The CPCS issued a recall for the "Sky Champion" helicopter distributed by Tradewinds International Enterprises (props for actually posting the recall on the website).

Maybe they should start marketing these with a SAM.

Toy Helicopters May Burst Into Flames

According to the CPSC, the “Thunder Wolf” Remote Controlled Indoor Helicopters, sold by Westminster Inc, are prone to overheating, melting, and bursting into flames. They have been recalled.

Actually, this sounds pretty cool.

Oddly, while they are listed as being manufactured in China, only the helicopters not labeled "Made in China" are subject to the recall.