At what age is it safe to leave a child home alone?

At what age is it considered child neglect to leave a child home alone?

October 25, 2019

American Academy of Pediatrics

A majority of social workers surveyed believe children should be at least 12 before being left home alone four hours or longer, and they are more likely to consider a home-alone scenario as neglect if a child is injured while left unsupervised.

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A majority of social workers surveyed believe children should be at least 12 before being left home alone four hours or longer, and they are more likely to consider a home-alone scenario as neglect if a child is injured while left unsupervised, according to research being presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2019 National Conference & Exhibition.

The research abstract, "Social Workers' Determination of When a Child Being Left Home Alone Constitutes Child Neglect," will be presented on Monday, Oct. 28 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

"We found that social workers who participated in the study were significantly more likely to consider it child neglect when a child was left home alone if the child had suffered an injury, as compared to when they did not," said Charles Jennissen, MD, FAAP, clinical professor and pediatric emergency medicine staff physician for the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City.

"The level of neglect is really the same whether a child knowingly left home alone is injured or not, and such situations should be handled the same by child protective investigators," he said.

For the study, researchers surveyed 485 members of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) who designated their practice as "Child/Family Welfare" from October to December 2015. They provided scenario conditions through an emailed survey in which a child of varying age was left home alone for four hours. The scenarios also varied by whether the child had been injured or not when left at home alone, and if there were a relevant "home alone" laws.

In cases where a child was not injured, nearly every social worker determined that leaving a child home alone for four hours was child neglect when the child was 6 years old or younger. More than 80% of social workers stated that this was child neglect if the child was 8 years or younger; about 50% stated it was child neglect if the child was 10 or younger. A lower proportion described the scenario as child neglect when a child was age 12 or 14.

When the scenarios included the conditions where a law made it illegal to leave a child at home alone or a child was injured, social workers were significantly more likely to consider it a case of child neglect at 8, 10, 12 and 14 years of age. The social workers were also asked at what age should it be illegal to leave a child alone for four hours, over one-half stated it should be illegal for children under 12 years of age and four-fifths agreed it should be illegal for children under 10 years.

Studies have shown that the lack of adult supervision contributes to more than 40% of U.S. pediatric injury-related deaths, the authors note. They say that the results suggest the need for uniform guidelines and safety laws related to childhood supervision nationally, in order to direct social workers in their evaluation of potential cases of child neglect and to better protect children from harm.

"This study recognizes that there are critical connections between safety laws, advocates and professionals in child welfare, and families with small children," said Gerene Denning, PhD, emeritus research scientist at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. "It takes partnership between all of these to prevent childhood injuries."

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Diabetes blues: Beyond pills, injections, blood checks

Diabetes affects and is regulated by the brain. 

Learn more! Click here.

From Medical News Today (excerpt).

Lastpdated Fri 24 May 2019

By Adam Felman 

Reviewed by Deborah Weatherspoon, PhD, RN, CRNA

Diabetes affects much more than blood sugar. It can lead to sudden mood changes that may place an emotional strain on relationships and personal life.

For some people, the stress of living with diabetes can contribute to both changes in mood and concerns about potential complications. The physical effects of diabetes may also lead to nervousness, anxiety, and confusion.

Sometimes, friends and family may struggle to understand these mood swings, but learning about how diabetes can affect mood and providing support can help promote a stronger, healthier relationship.

In this article, we look at how diabetes might affect a person's mood and relationships.

We also spoke to Jenn Catterall, who lives with type 1 diabetes and manages the condition using an insulin pump, about her emotional experiences with diabetes.

Diabetes and mood swings

Diabetes often has a complex emotional impact.

Diabetes can affect a person's mood, causing rapid and severe changes.

The symptoms of low blood sugar levels that might contribute to mood swings include:

• confusion
• hunger
• co-ordination and decision-making difficulties
• aggression and irritability
• personality or behavior changes
• concentration difficulties

Signs that indicate a person may have high blood sugar levels include:

• difficulty thinking clearly and quickly
• feeling nervous
• feeling tired or having low energy

Changes in blood sugar level can affect a person's mood and mental status. When blood sugar returns to a normal range, these symptoms often resolve.

Fluctuations in blood glucose can result in rapid mood changes, including low mood and irritability. This is especially true during hypoglycemic episodes, during which blood sugar levels drop below 70 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL).

However, when some people have low blood sugar, they experience a slightly euphoric feeling, in a similar way to being mildly drunk. Jenn reports the following with her own experiences:

Low blood sugars can be almost a nice experience, similar to being tipsy. When I was a teenager, my brother jokingly commented, "You're much nicer when your blood sugars are low!"

The body compounds this pleasant sensation by releasing adrenaline in an attempt to convert any available glycogen in the liver back into glucose to boost levels in the bloodstream."

This surge in adrenaline can lead to a fight-or-flight response. In Jenn's words, "Anything that might get in the way of a hypo recovery is now a danger, and your brain now focuses on keeping you conscious or alive."

This fight-or-flight state contributes to the feelings of irritability that might result from hypoglycemia in some people.

The speed of mood swings can vary, according to Jenn.

"The changes in mood, like the symptoms, can vary a lot in how suddenly I'll feel them, and they don't always parallel each other. However, we are talking a matter of minutes, up to maybe half an hour. It's not as sudden as an epileptic fit."

Hyperglycemic episodes, when glucose levels rise above 130 mg/dL when fasting and 180 mg/dL after meals, may also cause confusion in people with type 1 diabetes. This is less common in type 2 diabetes.

Diabetes affects and is regulated by the brain. 

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Alzheimer's Basics, Part 1

Brain basics right here.

Alzheimer's Changes the Whole Brain

Alzheimer's disease leads to nerve cell death and tissue loss throughout the brain. Over time, the brain shrinks dramatically, affecting nearly all its functions.

These images show:

A brain without the disease.

A brain with advanced Alzheimer's.

Scientists see the terrible effects of Alzheimer's disease when they look at brain tissue under the microscope. Scientists are not absolutely sure what causes cell death and tissue loss in the Alzheimer's brain, but  plaques and tangles that develop are prime suspects.  Alzheimer's tissue has many fewer nerve cells and synapses than a healthy brain.

Courtesy Alzheimer's Foundation.

  Brain basics right here.

Type 2 diabetes remission possible with 'achievable' weight loss

Diabetes affects and is regulated by the brain. 

Learn more! Click here.

People who achieve weight loss of 10% or more in the first five years following diagnosis with type 2 diabetes have the greatest chance of seeing their disease go into remission, according to a study led by the University of Cambridge.

The findings suggest that it is possible to recover from the disease without intensive lifestyle interventions or extreme calorie restrictions.

Type 2 diabetes affects 400 million people worldwide and increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, blindness and amputations. While the disease can be managed through a combination of positive lifestyle changes and medication, it is also possible for the high blood glucose levels that define diabetes to return to normal -- through significant calorie restriction and weight loss. An intensive low-calorie diet involving a total daily intake of 700 calories (less than one cheeseburger) for 8 weeks has been associated with remission in almost nine out of ten people with recently diagnosed diabetes and in half of people with longstanding disease.

However, there is little evidence to show whether the same effect can be achieved by people undergoing less intensive interventions, which are more feasible and potentially scalable to the wider population. To answer this question, a team led by researchers at the University of Cambridge studied data from the ADDITION-Cambridge trial, a prospective cohort study of 867 people with newly diagnosed diabetes aged 40 and 69 years recruited from general practices in the eastern region.

The research was funded by Wellcome, the Medical Research Council and the National Institute for Health Research.

The researchers found that 257 participants (30%) participants were in remission at five-year follow-up. People who achieved weight loss of 10% or more within the first five years after diagnosis were more than twice as likely to go into remission compared to people who maintained the same weight.

"We've known for some time now that it's possible to send diabetes into remission using fairly drastic measures such as intensive weight loss programmes and extreme calorie restriction," says Dr Hajira Dambha-Miller from the Department of Public Health and Primary Care.

"These interventions can be very challenging to individuals and difficult to achieve. But, our results suggest that it may be possible to get rid of diabetes, for at least five years, with a more modest weight loss of 10%. This will be more motivating and hence more achievable for many people."

Senior author Professor Simon Griffin of the MRC Epidemiology Unit added: "This reinforces the importance of managing one's weight, which can be achieved through changes in diet and increasing physical activity. Type 2 diabetes, while a chronic disease, can lead to significant complications, but as our study shows, can be controlled and even reversed."

Diabetes affects and is regulated by the brain. 

Learn more! Click here.

Your doggie may just extend your life

"Man's best friend" now has even more meaning.

                      

Get the full story on stress and the brain!  Click here.

        Date:

October 8, 2019

Source:

American Heart Association

Summary:

Dog ownership was associated with a 33% lower risk of early death for heart attack survivors living alone and 27% reduced risk of early death for stroke survivors living alone, compared to people who did not own a dog. Dog ownership was associated with a 24% reduced risk of all-cause mortality and a 31% lower risk of death by heart attack or stroke compared to non-owners.

Dog ownership may be associated with longer life and better cardiovascular outcomes, especially for heart attack and stroke survivors who live alone, according to a new study and a separate meta-analysis published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, a journal of the American Heart Association.

"The findings in these two well-done studies and analyses build upon prior studies and the conclusions of the 2013 AHA Scientific Statement 'Pet Ownership and Cardiovascular Risk' that dog ownership is associated with reductions in factors that contribute to cardiac risk and to cardiovascular events," said Glenn N. Levine, M.D., chair of the writing group of the American Heart Association's scientific statement on pet ownership. "Further, these two studies provide good, quality data indicating dog ownership is associated with reduced cardiac and all-cause mortality. While these non-randomized studies cannot 'prove' that adopting or owning a dog directly leads to reduced mortality, these robust findings are certainly at least suggestive of this."

Full story: Here.

No need to cut down red and processed meat for health reasons, controversial findings suggest

Source: McMaster University

Summary:

Contrary to previous advice, five new systematic reviews suggest that most people can continue to eat red and processed meat as they do now. The major studies have found cutting back has little impact on health.

  

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Meats and vegetables on a grill (stock image).

Credit: © Alexander Raths / Adobe Stock

Most people can continue to eat red and processed meat as they do now. A major study led by researchers at McMaster and Dalhousie universities has found cutting back has little impact on health.

A panel of international scientists systematically reviewed the evidence and have recommended that most adults should continue to eat their current levels of red and processed meat.

The researchers performed four systematic reviews focused on randomized controlled trials and observational studies looking at the impact of red meat and processed meat consumption on cardiometabolic and cancer outcomes.

In one review of 12 trials with 54,000 people, the researchers did not find statistically significant or an important association between meat consumption and the risk of heart disease, diabetes or cancer.

Full story: HERE

The brain is an energy-hungry organ. Despite comprising only 2 percent of the body’s weight, the brain gobbles up more than 20 percent of daily energy intake. Because the brain demands such high amounts of energy, the foods we consume greatly affect brain function, including everything from learning and memory to emotions. Click HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BRAIN!

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Coffee and Chocolate Make You Smarter

From Inc.com

There's no longer any controversy: Every healthy diet should include at least some caffeine.

GETTY IMAGES

Neuroscience continues to uncover new ways that coffee and (to a lesser extent) tea and chocolate, tend to make brains healthier and more resilient. 2019 has already seen some amazing research breakthroughs that are definitely worth sharing.

First, a joint study from the National Institute on Aging and Johns Hopkins University, and published last January in Neurochemical Research magazine, discovered that a methylxanthines--a class of chemical found in coffee, tea and dark chocolate (cacao)

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"has clear effects on neuronal network activity, promotes sustained cognitive performance and can protect neurons against dysfunction and death in animal models of stroke, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease."

That same study also discovered that xanthine metabolites--a chemical released when your brain processes caffeine, "may also contribute to the beneficial effects of coffee, tea and cacao on brain health."

Second, a meta-analysis of 11 studies on the impact of coffee on brain health and published in World Journal of Surgical Oncology showed that both coffee and tea (and thus, by extension, cacao) doesn't just reduce the risk of alzheimer's disease but also reduces the risk of brain cancer.

Finally, a groundbreaking study at Okayama University

"indicated that intake of coffee components, CA and CGA, enhanced the antioxidative properties of glial cells and prevents rotenone-induced neurodegeneration in both the brain and myenteric plexus."

Translation: caffeine makes your brain more flexible and resilient.

The big takeaway: if you want to keep your brain healthy both today and in the future as you age, you should be consuming coffee, tea, or cacao.

How much?

Well, chances are you're not consuming enough. Studies have shown that the ideal daily dosage of coffee is about six to eight 8oz cups, ideally consumed prior to 2pm so that it doesn't disturb your sleep.

If that sounds like too much coffee, consider replacing a cup or two with an ounce of dark chocolate. It need hardly be said that, for other health reasons, you should be consuming coffee, tea and cacao without sugar or creamer.  But you still get the brain-boost, regardless.

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