Latest news with #childhoodhealth
Forbes
2 days ago
- Health
- Forbes
Forget Screen Time, This Is The True Threat To Gen Alpha
CEOs and founders are finally beginning to pay attention to the mobility-gap in our youth. While all eyes are on mobile phones as the greatest threat to our youth's wellbeing, a bigger threat to childhood might be unfolding just beyond the glow of those screens. Across the globe, we're raising a generation that is less physically active, less mobile, and less confident in their bodies than ever before. In the United States, only 20-28% of kids between ages 6 and 17 meet the CDC's recommendation of 60 minutes of daily physical activity. Globally, the situation is even more dire, with over 80% of adolescents not getting enough exercise, according to the World Health Organization. Despite decades of awareness campaigns, public investment, and school initiatives, the needle has barely moved. The consequences ripple out beyond rising obesity or declining cardiovascular health. Lower levels of childhood movement are linked to decreased executive function, poorer mental health, reduced school performance, and higher rates of social isolation. In short, we're quietly undermining an entire generation that will soon find itself struggling not only with their physical well-being, but with the confidence and competence that comes from mastering their own bodies, all in the era of AI that is already making it more difficult for humans to compete. This is why we need to look beyond our concerns over the screen, and examine how we can push and pull our youth to action again. And in this endeavor, companies and their leadership have much more work to do than you might initially think. We Need to Pull Kids Toward Movement, Not Push Them Away From Screens If we want to raise kids who move, we need to build environments that make movement feel rewarding, natural, and most of all, fun. It is not enough to tell children to go outside or scold them for spending too much time online. The same goes for simply taking away their cellphones, even if Jonathan Haidt has made a wonderful case for doing so. Instead, we need to offer meaningful incentives that meet them, and move them, where they are. That's the idea behind WeWard, a free mobile app that turns walking into a rewarding experience. 'When we gamify movement, teenagers suddenly care,' says Yves Benchimol, WeWard's founder and CEO in an interview. 'Across our user base, daily movement jumps by 24 percent once rewards kick in.' Clearly the carrot approach is working, given how one of WeWard's fastest-growing user segments has been among teens and young adults who never saw themselves as 'active.' According to Benchimol, 'The magic doesn't come from collecting points or the gamification alone. The social proof of it all is incredibly important as well. When you're competing with your friends and building healthier habits through community, that's a powerful shift in mindset.' He's particularly passionate about closing mobility equity gaps with methods that pull, instead of push, and he also reminds us of the importance of access to options to move. 'There's a turbo fitness culture these days that promotes rigid diets and expensive workout routines that not everyone can afford,' Benchimol says. 'A healthy lifestyle is something that everyone should have access to in a way that isn't intimidating or extreme. That's why we chose to focus on walking—it's a simple but powerful movement that's incredibly overlooked. Educating the youth on these benefits will be key to wellness reform' What Benchimol is highlighting ties to a growing trend where treating physical activity not as a personal virtue, but as a public good that needs private solutions and education to play a larger role. If we want more movement, we need to design for it on all sides of the economy. That includes smart incentives, but also the resources and tools to make movement easy. Make Mobility Accessible, And The Rest Takes Care of Itself Kids find the joy in mobility early, if only we allow it. For many kids, a love of motion starts the moment they ride their first bike. But fewer and fewer are reaching that milestone, in large part given that we simply don't have access to spaces, or equipment to move the way previous generations did. Perhaps the most striking statistic comes from something as simple as riding a bike. According to Strider Bikes founder Ryan McFarland during our interview, 'Only about a quarter of kids in the U.S. can ride a bike by the time they're six. We used to take it for granted. Now, it's the exception.' Seeing these statistics play out firsthand is part of the reason McFarland created the Strider balance bike to begin with. After watching his own son struggle on traditional learn-to-ride toys that were too cumbersome and complicated, he crafted his own pedal-less starter bike designed to teach balance and confidence before introducing propulsion. 'Balance first, propulsion later. The moment a toddler glides, you've banked a lifetime of confidence,' McFarland says. Recognizing the challenge accessibility poses, McFarland has pushed the company to do more than simply build bikes. The Strider Education Foundation helped launch and now supports All Kids Bike, a nonprofit initiative that puts balance bikes directly into public school kindergarten PE classes. Their turnkey program includes bikes, helmets, curriculum, and teacher training, all funded by donors. 'With over 1,600 active programs in all 50 states, we're reaching 160,000 five-year-olds every year,' says Lisa Weyer, executive director of All Kids Bike. 'And because the equipment lasts up to a decade, we are teaching over 1.6 million kids how to ride.' The appeal to schools is clear: the program fits seamlessly into existing curriculum, doesn't require families to buy their own equipment, and provides measurable outcomes. 'We treat bikes the way we treat books or microscopes,' Weyer explains. 'Bikes shouldn't feel like luxury items. They're essential learning tools and the pathway to a lifetime of mobility.' Both Weyer and McFarland see mobility as a justice issue. 'You don't get to build confidence if you never get the chance to try,' says McFarland. 'That's why we focus on public schools, especially in communities where bikes might be out of reach.' When we break down the barriers of accessibility by removing cost barriers, creating access, and integrating movement into daily routines, kids naturally take to it in ways that show the issue is not due to a lack of interest in movement. Quite the contrary. However, there's another piece of the puzzle: adults modeling the behavior they wan't to see in the youth. Don't Forget Grown-ups Need Play, Too Those who have been around kids know that they model what we do, not what we say. If kids are watching us, and they always are, then they need to see adults enjoying movement, not avoiding it. Given the only race most kids see their parents run is of the rat variety, we have ourselves to blame for much of the lack of movement we see in our progeny. Bringing back movement that is fun to our own lives is an essential starting point that we can't shut our eyes from. And that's where companies like Onewheel come in. 'The idea for Onewheel was inspired by the desire to recreate the feeling of freedom and flow that I first fell in love with growing up snowboarding in the Canadian Rockies,' says Kyle Doerksen, founder of Onewheel, a self-balancing electric board that feels like surfing on land. 'It was never meant to be a toy, but a vehicle that could create a whole new category of sport, and turn the everyday school or coffee run into a micro-adventure.' What began as a Kickstarter project in 2014 has grown into a global community with riders in 139 countries around the world and an active scene of meetups, group rides, and competitions. 'People love to ride together, and we see a lot of parents and older kids who ride together too,' Doerksen adds. 'There's this deep nostalgia for the kind of play we had as kids, exploration, speed, freedom, that I think sometimes we as adults forgot was possible.' The company's latest board is itself a nostalgic nod to the past, the Onewheel XR Classic, a reimagined version of its best-selling board, the discontinued Onewheel XR. Doerksen argues that micromobility is at its core a cultural shift. 'When parents ride to the park instead of driving, when they try and fail and laugh and try again, kids notice. Adults need recess, too.' By making movement aspirational for grown-ups, Onewheel has created a feedback loop: adults who play raise kids who move. And when that loop becomes normal, the next generation doesn't need to be coaxed off the couch. We can't lecture our way out of the youth mobility crisis. What we can do is make moving irresistible. That means more carrots, rewards, recognition, community, and fewer sticks. It means embedding equipment and encouragement where kids already are: schools, parks, city blocks. It means showing them that movement is normal, joyful, and for everyone. Above all, it means treating mobility not as a side effect of good parenting or elite schooling, but as a basic ingredient in a thriving childhood. The bodies of the next generation are already telling us what they need. Our job is to listen, and get them moving.
WebMD
28-05-2025
- Health
- WebMD
Your 3-Item Prepregnancy Health Checklist
May 28, 2025 — Planning a pregnancy? Go ahead, envision it: the birth, the name, the color scheme of the nursery. But have you thought about squeezing in your cardiologist appointments between school pickups and soccer practice? Probably not, but maybe you should: More moms than ever are at risk of heart problems around the time their child turns 10. They may even watch a tiny blood-pressure cuff get wrapped around their toddler's arm — because childhood high blood pressure is linked to mom's health during pregnancy. In fact, a flurry of new science provides stark details about how prepregnancy health can impact your child's lifelong health — and your own during the prime parenting years. 'More women now than ever are entering pregnancy with risk factors such as obesity,' said Jaclyn D. Borrowman, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. About 40% of American women have obesity, and that could hit 60% by 2050, she said. It's not just weight. A new analysis looked at eight factors affecting pregnancy health: sleep, diet, physical activity, blood pressure, prepregnancy diabetes, body mass index, cholesterol, and smoking history. 'While some may be aware of these risks, many aren't,' Borrowman said. 'Even when they are, it's not always easy to act on that knowledge.' The first step in pregnancy planning, she said: Meet with your doctor before getting pregnant. Here are three ways new research says you can optimize your own and your baby's lifelong health. 1. Manage Your Weight Pregnancy is often called a 'window into your future health.' Pregnancy-related health problems like gestational diabetes or high blood pressure often lead to chronic health problems later in life. A new study connects the dots from prepregnancy health to pregnancy complications and to — about 11 years later — serious risk factors for heart trouble. The key link: obesity heading into pregnancy, the researchers found. 'Even in those without pregnancy complications, we saw that obesity before pregnancy was linked to a higher risk of heart disease down the road,' said Borrowman, the study's author. On average, the mothers in the study were around 30 years old when they gave birth and about 41 when heightened heart disease risk factors showed up in their medical records. In a separate new study, a mother's weight during the first trimester was the strongest health factor (out of eight) associated with developing a gestational blood pressure condition. Put simply: The lower the mother's body mass index, the lower the odds of developing these problems. That means every little bit of prepregnancy weight loss or weight management during pregnancy can make a big health impact. Obesity is a complex disease with multiple causes, Borrowman stressed. It's not just about lifestyle but also 'things like family history, health conditions like thyroid problems or polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), and where someone lives,' she said. If you're struggling, don't go it alone. Your primary care doctor can help guide you. 2. Improve Your Blood Pressure 'It's not all about weight,' said researcher Michael C. Honigberg, MD, a cardiologist at Mass General and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. While his study (mentioned above) found weight to be the strongest factor linked to blood pressure problems during pregnancy, it also showed that even small reductions in blood pressure before pregnancy can make a big difference — even for women without diagnosed high blood pressure. Women whose systolic blood pressure (top number) was between 120 and 129 had 1.5 times greater odds of developing a blood-pressure-related pregnancy problem, compared with women who had normal blood pressure (when the top and bottom numbers are below 120 and 80, respectively). Another new study showed that children whose mothers had high blood pressure during pregnancy were significantly more likely to have elevated blood pressure during childhood, and the problem worsened as the child got older (the study included measurements from ages 2 to 18). Children were at the highest risk if their mother had both obesity and high blood pressure during pregnancy. Taken together, Honigberg said, these latest studies show that 'much of the risk associated with these pregnancy complications reflect prepregnancy cardiometabolic and cardiovascular health. Not all of it, but a lot of it.' One overlooked problem with prepregnancy assessments, he said: Young women look healthy. 'We often ignore or brush off cardiometabolic risk factors in young patients because they're young, so they're fine,' he said. Conclusions about health risks of mothers and their children point toward 'a slightly glib summary of the way the medical system thinks about risk factors in young adults.' 3. Improve a Little Bit of Everything About Your Health Honigberg's study created a score for pregnant women based on Life's Essential 8 — a set of health metrics defined by the American Heart Association to measure heart health. These include sleep, diet, physical activity, blood pressure, prepregnancy diabetes, body mass index, cholesterol, and smoking history. The team then calculated women's odds of developing blood pressure problems during pregnancy, including preeclampsia and eclampsia. They analyzed how genetic predisposition compared to having a poor score for all eight health factors. The upshot: Don't let genetics discourage you. Higher scores of Life's Essential 8 were linked to lower odds of gestational blood pressure problems — regardless of genetic risk. True, weight and diabetes status were among the biggest single drivers. But by analyzing all health factors during the first trimester, this study uncovered other areas to focus on before and during pregnancy. For example, increasing nightly sleep from less than four hours to at least seven can greatly lower risk, and so can increasing physical activity. 'Making lifestyle changes can be difficult, but small changes can make a huge difference in your overall health,' Borrowman said. 'Pregnancy can be an exciting time, but it also comes with a lot of unknowns and that can be stressful. The truth is, we all do the best we can with the information and resources we have. 'If you're currently pregnant and reading this, please know that taking the time to learn and care about your health already shows your deep commitment to giving yourself and your baby the best possible start. That matters and it makes a difference.'
Fox News
22-05-2025
- Health
- Fox News
'Half a dozen' more states to ban soda, junk food purchases with food stamps, Trump Agriculture secretary says
Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said during a Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) event Thursday that the Trump administration is making history with its approval of numerous waivers that will eliminate junk food from food stamp programs. Rollins was in Nebraska on Monday to sign the first alongside Republican Gov. Jim Pillen. She has also signed a waiver for Indiana and Iowa, "with half-a-dozen more coming down the line," she said. "We are on track to sign multiples of snap waivers to get junk food and sugary drinks out of our food stamp system," Rollins said at the Thursday afternoon event, centering around the release of a 69-page report from the Trump administration's MAHA Commission on how to effect change around childhood chronic disease. "That has never happened before under Republican or Democrat administrations," Rollins added. "We have never made that happen before. So I am so proud and so grateful." On average, 42 million low-income Americans receive food stamp assistance each month, according to the MAHA report released at Thursday's event. It added that 1 in 5 American children under 17 receive SNAP benefits. With Nebraska's waiver, it became the first state in the nation to bar recipients of federal food stamp programs from using the money to buy junk food, soda and other high-sugar items. The exemption will begin as a two-year pilot program, local media reported. Other GOP-led states, including Texas and West Virginia, have applied for this waiver. "SNAP was created to increase access to nutritious food; however, many SNAP purchases are for food with little to no nutritious value," Texas GOP Governor Greg Abbott wrote in a letter to Rollins requesting a waiver last week. "Under the Trump administration, for the first time since the program was authorized, states can take steps to eliminate the opportunity to buy junk food with SNAP benefits and assure that taxpayer dollars are used only to purchase healthy, nutritious food." West Virginia's Governor Patrick Morrisey, one of the leaders requesting a waiver, has also been spearheading other MAHA efforts in his state. In March, Morrisey signed House Bill 2354 into law, which made it the first state in the nation to begin prohibiting certain synthetic dyes and additives used in food items sold in the state.
Fox News
22-05-2025
- Health
- Fox News
RFK JR's highly anticipated MAHA report paints dismal state of child health, national security concerns
President Donald Trump's Make America Healthy Again Commission released its anticipated report assessing chronic diseases that have gripped U.S. youths in recent years, pinning blame for a spike in childhood issues to a host of variables stretching from ingesting foods with added chemicals to an increase in prescribing pharmaceuticals to young kids. "After a century of costly and ineffective approaches, the federal government will lead a coordinated transformation of our food, health, and scientific systems," the report, released Thursday and reviewed by Fox News Digital, outlined. "This strategic realignment will ensure that all Americans—today and in the future—live longer, healthier lives, supported by systems that prioritize prevention, wellbeing, and resilience." Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. serves as chair of the commission and joined a call with the media earlier Thursday, when he explained that the report is a "diagnosis" of the state of U.S. health, and that the "prescription" for the ongoing issues will be released in 100 days at the end of August in the form of policy recommendations for the federal government. The report's findings include: teenage depression nearly doubling from 2009 to 2019, more than one-in-five children over the age of six being considered obese, one-in-31 children diagnosed with autism by age 8, and childhood cancer spiking by 40% since 1975. "Over 40% of the roughly 73 million children (aged 0-17) in the United States have at least one chronic health condition, according to the CDC, such as asthma, allergies, obesity, autoimmune diseases, or behavioral disorders," the report stated. "Although estimates vary depending on the conditions included, all studies show an alarming increase over time," the report stated. Chronic diseases have a chilling effect on national security, commission members said in a Thursday morning phone call with the media. Roughly 75% of America's youth aged 17-24 do not qualify to serve in the military due to obesity, asthma, allergies, autoimmune diseases or behavioral disorders, they said. "We now have the most obese, depressed, disabled, medicated population in the history of the world, and we cannot keep going down the same road," Food and Drug Commissioner Marty Makary said on the phone call with the media. "So this is an amazing day. I hope this marks the grand pivot from a system that is entirely reactionary to a system that will now be proactive." The report itself pointed to a handful of variables leading to what Kennedy and other Trump administration leaders called a "chronic disease crisis," including a "food system [that] is safe but could be healthier;" exposure to environmental chemicals such as pesticides outside or microplastics in food consumed; as well as a culture shift that moved kids from playing outside to being glued to their phones or tablets. "American children are highly medicated — and it's not working," the report added of another variable compounding the chronic health issues. The report found that prescribing medication to children has skyrocketed in recent history, such as a 250% increase in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder prescriptions between 2006 and 2016 despite scientific evidence that the prescriptions did not "improve outcomes long-term," as well as a 1,400% increase between 1987 and 2014 for antidepressant prescriptions for kids, and 800% increase in anti-psychotic medications for children between 1993 and 2009. "These time trends significantly outpace more moderate increases seen in other developed countries," the report found. "Psychotropics for ADHD are one example, prescribed 2.5 times more in US than in British children , and 19 times more than in Japanese youth. The crisis of overdiagnosis and overtreatment in children is therefore both empirically evident, and proportionally specific to American youth." While the report detailed that fluoride, which is a water additive frequently used to protect teeth from decay and cavities, was found to have a "statistically significant association between exposure to fluoride above recommended levels and reduced IQ levels in children." The EPA, the report said, is in the midst of reviewing fluoride data to potentially enact "revisions to the federal drinking water standard." By 2022, more than 60% of Americans — more than 70% of those on public water systems — were consuming fluoridated water, the report said. A 2025 systematic review published in JAMA Pediatrics, analyzing 74 high-quality studies, found a statistically significant association between exposure to fluoride above recommended levels and reduced IQ levels in children. EPA is currently conducting a review of additional research that will inform any potential revisions to the federal drinking water standard. Director of the National Institutes of Health Jay Bhattacharya shared on the press call that the report underscores America's next generation of children are less healthy than their parents and will subsequently live shorter lives if not addressed. "What the report says is that the next generation of children will live shorter lives than their parents," he said. "For me as a parent, that is absolutely shocking. The implication is that whatever is happening to our kids, the food that they eat, the environmental exposures they face, the medicines that they take to address the fact that they're sick are not translating over into making them healthier. And in fact, they are less healthy than their parents were at the same age." The report found, "Despite outspending peer nations by more than double per capita on healthcare, the United States ranks last in life expectancy among high-income countries – and suffers higher rates of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Today's children are the sickest generation in American history in terms of chronic disease and these preventable trends continue to worsen each year, posing a threat to our nation's health, economy, and military readiness." The Trump officials stressed on the call that America's food system is "100% safe," but that it could be even healthier, such as shifting from "ultraprocessed foods" that contain added "sugars, chemical additives, and saturated fats, while lacking sufficient intakes of fruits and vegetables." Kennedy added that the "holistic"review of U.S. health as it relates to children includes promoting a strong economy, citing that "weak economies kill people." The report "represents an invitation to the American people and the American press to have a complex conversation about a nuanced subject, including that environmental policy, good economic policy and good public health policy are ultimately 100% aligned," Kennedy said on the press call. "The reason for that, particularly regarding public health, is that a strong economy is a social determinant of public health," he continued. "Weak economies kill people. They make people sicker. Large public deaths make people sicker. These are all social determinants. And we learned during COVID that you can't isolate the economy from the public health policy." Trump signed an executive order in February establishing the commission, chaired by Kennedy and joined by other agency leaders such as EPA chief Lee Zeldin, USDA's Brooke Rollins and VA Secretary Doug Collins. The executive order directed the commission to release "an assessment that summarizes what is known and what questions remain regarding the childhood chronic disease crisis, and include international comparisons." The commission will release its next report advising how to tackle chronic health issues in the next 100 days, which falls on Aug. 30. Kennedy and Trump vowed on the campaign trail to "Make America Healthy Again," including directing their focus on autism among the youth in recent years.
Medscape
06-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Low Childhood Vitamin D Signals High CVD Risk in Adulthood
Levels of 25-hydroxy (OH) vitamin D below 37 nmol/L during childhood were significantly associated with an increased risk for adult-onset atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. METHODOLOGY: Researchers analysed data from a prospective study in Finland to evaluate the relationship between low levels of vitamin D during childhood and adult-onset atherosclerotic CVD events. They included 3516 participants (mean age at baseline, 10.5 years; 50.9% girls) whose serum concentrations of 25-OH vitamin D were measured in 2010 from stored frozen samples collected in 1980 when the participants were 3-18 years old. The association between atherosclerotic CVD outcomes during adulthood and 25-OH vitamin D level cut points ranging from 31 to 43 nmol/L during childhood was examined. Levels < 30 nmol/L were used as a cut point for vitamin D deficiency. TAKEAWAY: By 2018, 95 participants (2.7%) had been diagnosed with at least one atherosclerotic CVD event, with 47 years being the median age at the first event. Low levels of 25-OH vitamin D during childhood were significantly associated with an increased risk for atherosclerotic CVD events during adulthood at cut points of 37 nmol/L (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.84), 35 nmol/L (aHR, 2.19), 33 nmol/L (aHR, 1.76), and 31 nmol/L (aHR, 2.07; P < .05 for all). < .05 for all). The findings remained consistent when adjusting for adult vitamin D levels or when using the vitamin D deficiency cut point of < 30 nmol/L. Nearly one fifth of the young participants did not achieve the vitamin D level cut point of > 37 nmol/L after about four decades of follow-up. IN PRACTICE: "The results may thus have implications in future prevention of ASCVD [atherosclerotic CVD], and easy and cost-beneficial CVD risk mitigation via supporting optimized 25-OH-vitamin D supplementation during childhood," the authors wrote. SOURCE: This study was led by Jussi Niemelä, MD, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland. It was published online on April 29, 2025, in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology . LIMITATIONS: The measurement of baseline levels of 25-OH vitamin D from stored serum samples may have been subject to error. The findings from this ethnically homogeneous study population may not be generalisable to other European populations. Causality could not be established from the observed associations. DISCLOSURES: No funding information was provided for this study, and the authors reported having no conflicts of interest.
