Smacking or shouting at your children may put them at agreater risk of cancer, heart disease and asthma later in life, a new study haswarned. The study found the link could be caused because smacking and shoutingat children causes them stress. The increased stress levels then causebiological changes within an individual which can lead to serious healthproblems.
Researchers from Plymouth University found the stress causedby the smacking or shouting in a child's early years may lead to biologicalchanges which predispose to disease. The research team asked 250 healthy adultsin Saudi Arabia about their childhood and compared the answers to 150 adultswith heart disease, 150 with cancer and 150 with asthma. They were askedwhether and how often they had been beaten and subjected to verbal abuse aschildren. Those who had cancer were 70 per cent more likely to have been beatenas a child compared to the healthy group.
Let’s dance
Dancing robots may be better at improving the communicationskills of children with autism than human teachers, researchers believe.Evidence emerging from a trial suggests that pupils who are on the autisticspectrum learn better from the automatons than human teachers. Researchers saythat if they can be proven to help difficult to reach youngsters, then in thefuture they could also be used to help pupils in mainstream classes.
Robots are being used as classroom buddies for autisticchildren in a groundbreaking initiative that aims to improve social interactionand communication. Max and Ben, two knee-high humanoid robots that can dance to"Thriller", play games and emulate Tai Chi, are to be showcased byresearchers at the University of Birmingham as part of the ESRC festival ofSocial Sciences. The Aldebaran robots, which have been trialed by pupils atTopcliffe Primary School in Castle Vale, Birmingham since March, are the latestin a range of innovative technologies that was on display at the school.
Make-up makes me older?
Chemicals found in make-up, hairspray and food packaging arecausing women to hit menopause early, researchers warn.
Researchers at Washington University, Missouri found that agroup of chemicals known as pthalates found in plastics, cosmetics, householdproducts and food packaging may be disrupting women's reproductive systems,including their ovaries, and leading to early menopause.
In some cases, these chemicals may be causing women to stophaving periods 15 years too soon, say scientists. The study looked at the levels of pthalatesin the blood or urine of 5,700 women. Those with the highest amounts were foundto have gone through the menopause an average of 2.3 years before the others.The typical age of the menopause is 51, so women exposed to the highest levelswere hitting it aged 49. Dr NataliaGrindler found that some women may be going through the menopause 15 yearsearly, in their mid-thirties.
An early menopause is linked to higher rates of strokes,heart disease, bone problems and fatal brain haemorrhages.
Young blood
Giving middle-aged people a transfusion of young blood couldkeep their brains healthy in old age and delay the onset of diseases likeAlzheimer's, according to a new study.
Researchers from the Stanford University found thatfiltering younger blood into an older body could rejuvenate old tissue and keepnerve cells in good working order, scientists have claimed. People in their 40sor 50s could in future be given blood donated by someone in their earlytwenties to prevent their brain from deteriorating and stave off diseases like Alzheimer's,The Telegraph reported.
The study found that old mice given transfusions of youngerblood performed better in a memory task than those left to age naturally. Theyalso began to re-grow connections in their brains which had previously begun todisappear as part of the aging process and which affect memory.
