The scientists found that for every hour a day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants understood an average of six to eight fewer words than infants who did not watch them. The material had no effect - positive or negative - on the vocabularies on toddlers 17 to 24 months of age.
"The most important fact to come from this study is that there is no clear evidence of a benefit coming from baby DVDs and videos, and there is some suggestion of harm," said Frederick Zimmerman, lead author of the study. "The bottom line is the more a child watches baby DVDs and videos, the bigger the effect. The amount of viewing does matter."
MEDTRONICA
Family Doctor - familydoctor.org
A comprehensive health Web site sponsored by the American Academy of Family Physicians, in both English and Spanish. Features include "Smart Patient Guide," which helps people more effectively advocate their own health care and a guide to over-the-counter medications.
BODY OF KNOWLEDGE
The odds of two fingerprints being the same, according to the FBI, are 1 in 64 million.
GET ME THAT. STAT!
Women who undergo cosmetic breast enlargement surgeries are three times as likely to commit suicide as those who don't have surgically enhanced breasts, according to a new study by the International Epidemiology Institute in Rockville, Md. Underlying psychiatric issues are most likely to blame.
NEVER SAY DIET
The world's speed record for eating tiramisu is 4 pounds in six minutes, set by Timothy Janus in 2005.
BEST MEDICINE
"What's wrong, doctor? You look puzzled."
"I can't figure out exactly what's wrong with you. T think it's the result of heavy drinking."
"Well then, I'll just come back when you're sober."
He is alive, but only in the sense that he cannot be legally buried.
- British writer Geoffrey Madan (1895-1947)
STORIES FOR THE WAITING ROOM
A study by Joanne Lynne, director of the Center to Improve Care of the Dying at George Washington Medical Center, examined 2,000 cases in which patients in comas died. She found that in most cases, doctors were just 50/50 in terms of accurately predicting how long a person might live.
That's no better than random chance.
In 20% of the cases studied, coma patients projected to live roughly two more months died the next day.
HYPOCHONDRIAC'S GUIDE
Menkes kinky hair disease (named after Dr. John Menkes, who described it in 1962) is a metabolic disorder characterized by the body's inability to absorb or expel copper.
Instead, the mineral builds to excess in some parts of the body (kidney, spleen) while other parts go wanting (brain, liver). Symptoms include listlessness and a prolonged sense of malaise, but the most notable is that once-straight hair becomes stumpy, snarled, meager and easily broken.
Though relatively rare, the disease can be fatal.
PHOBIA OF THE WEEK
Catagelophobia - fear of being ridiculed
LAST WORDS
"I think I'm going to make it."
- Richard A. Loeb, who in 1924 was accused of murdering a 14-year-old boy with friend and fellow university student Nathan Leopold Jr.
The trial of Leopold and Loeb was widely covered, in part because the defendants believed their exceptional intellect had allowed them to commit the "perfect crime." Nonetheless, they were convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Loeb was slashed to death by another prisoner in 1936, at age 30. Leopold died of a heart attack in 1971 at age 66.
EXERCISE ADDS YEARS
According to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, men and women who did moderate activities such as walking for 30 minutes, five days a week, had an extra 1.5 years of life expectancy compared with sedentary people. Those who did the same amount of intense exercise extended their life expectancy by more than 3.5 years.
GOOD FOR MOM, TOO
You already know that mother's milk is great for your baby. Now it turns out that feeding the little one can help your health, too. Breast-feeding can reduce a woman's risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, according to a study in The Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers found that breast-feeding for at least a year reduced a woman's risk of developing the disease by as much as 15% because it lowers glucose and insulin levels.
