News & Tips Blog

In a nationwide survey of students in grades 9-12, nearly one in 10 students reported being hit or physically hurt on purpose by a boyfriend or girlfriend at least once in the past 12 months. And nearly half of all teens in relationships say they know friends who have been verbally abused.

Before violence starts, a teen may experience controlling behavior and demands. One partner may tell another what to wear and who to hang out with. Over time, the unhealthy behavior may become violent. That’s why adults need to talk to teens now about the importance of developing healthy, respectful relationships.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in partnership with Liz Claiborne, Inc., have developed a new online training, “Dating Matters: Understanding Teen Dating Violence Prevention.”  The training will help educators, youth leaders, and others working with teens understand the importance of healthy relationships and how to prevent violence before it starts.

Click here to read more.

Overweight children-as young as three years old-show signs of having elevated levels of C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation that in adults is considered an early warning sign for future heart disease.

“These findings were a surprise to us,” says lead author Asheley Cockrell Skinner, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill School of Medicine. “We’re seeing a relationship between weight status and elevated inflammatory markers much earlier than we expected.”

 ”A lot more work needs to be done before we figure out the full implication of these findings,” says Eliana Perrin, senior author of the study. “But this study tells us that very young, obese children already have more inflammation than children who are not obese, and that’s very concerning. It may help motivate us as physicians and parents to take obesity at younger ages more seriously.”

Click here to read more.

In recognition of March being Poison Awareness and Prevention Month, the Orange County Health Department (OCHD) is launching an awareness and prevention campaign, Because I Care. It is focused on steps adults can take to prevent medication poisonings.

Adults can help by making sure medications are inaccessible to children and visitors, not sharing prescription drugs, and properly and quickly disposing of unneeded or expired medications.

Do not flush the medication. Instead, the OCHD recommends you leave it in the original container, remove personal information and mix with an undesirable substance such a brewed coffee grounds or kitty litter. Then seal the container with tape, place in a bag and place hidden in the trash.

Click here for more information.

New research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that an hour’s nap can dramatically boost and restore your brain power. Indeed, the findings suggest that adding a nap to a regular night’s sleep not only refreshes the mind, but can make you smarter.

Conversely, the more hours we spend awake, the more sluggish our minds become, according to the findings. The results support previous data from the same research team that pulling an all-nighter - a common practice at college during midterms and finals - decreases the ability to cram in new facts by nearly 40 percent, due to a shutdown of brain regions during sleep deprivation.

Click here to read more on the UC Berkeley website.

Combining alcohol and energy drinks may create a dangerous mix, according to University of Florida research.

In a study of college-aged adults exiting bars, patrons who consumed energy drinks mixed with alcohol had a threefold increased risk of leaving a bar highly intoxicated and were four times more likely to intend to drive after drinking than bar patrons who drank alcohol only.

“There’s a very common misconception that if you drink caffeine with an alcoholic beverage the stimulant effect of the caffeine counteracts the depressant effect of the alcohol and that is not true,” said Bruce Goldberger, co-author of the study and professor and director of toxicology in the UF College of Medicine. “We know that caffeine aggravates the degree of intoxication, which can lead to risky behaviors.”

Click here for more information on the study.

As spring arrives, Floridians become more active outdoors - and so do snakes.

Encountering one of these reptiles can be frightening for anyone who isn’t snake-savvy, because the state is home to six venomous species, along with dozens of harmless ones. But a new University of Florida (UF) field guide can make it easy to identify snakes based on their appearance.

The new 138-page, ring-bound guide contains at least one color photo of each species, a map showing its range and text including a description, preferred habitat, size, diet and scientific name. Printed on heavy, water-resistant card stock, it’s rugged enough to carry anywhere and is available for $18 from www.ifasbooks.com or at 800-226-1764.

Click here for more information on dealing with Florida’s snakes.

Shepherd’s Hope has opened a walk-in clinic in Eatonville providing free medical care to individuals and families who are uninsured and whose income is less than 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

The clinic, located on College Street just off of Kennedy in downtown Eatonville, is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Patients are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.

For more information, call 407-876-6699.

The National Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Coalition, the White House Office of Science and Technology and a wide variety of public and private partners have launched a unique educational program for new moms called text4Baby.

It is designed to give pregnant women and new moms critical health information to keep themselves and babies healthy via cell phone.

Text4baby will send 3 text messages each week to cell phones with expert health tips to help moms and moms-to-be through pregnancy and the baby’s first year.

To sign up, text BABY to 511411. To sign up for text4baby in Spanish, text BEBE to 511411. You can also sign up and get more information at www.text4baby.org

The Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity at Yale University has released a new educational video and discussion guide in its internationally-acclaimed weight bias video series, highlighting the issue of weight bias among children and teens. Designed to initiate and support discussion of weight prejudice in middle school, high school, and other youth group settings, this 17-minute video is geared toward parents and educators.

“Weight Prejudice: Myths & Facts” features Bene, a camcorder-toting teen who turns a class biology project into an important lesson about the impact and myths of weight prejudice. She brings key issues out into the open, helping kids and teens realize that weight prejudice is wrong. Viewers will also learn how to help themselves and their classmates increase awareness and cope with weight-based teasing.

Click here for more information.

Children who cycle to school are more physically active and fit than those who use other modes of transport, according to new research from the official journal of the American College of Sports Medicine.

The findings are based a study of 6,000 children, ages 10 to 16, from the eastern region of England. The children’s cardiorespiratory fitness and travel habits were assessed during 2007 and 2008.

Boys who cycled to school were 30 percent more likely to be fit, but there was an even more dramatic difference in fitness among female subjects. Girls who biked to school were seven times more likely to reach the minimum fitness standard than girls who used motorized transport.

Click here to read more about the study.