Published: February 14, 2007 08:21 pm            

Health Matters: Bedtimes linked to child obesity

Now you have a good excuse for shooing the children to bed early: Lack of sleep can weigh heavy on children — literally.

Researchers at Northwestern University in Evansville, Ill., reported in the January-February issue of “Child Development” that the lack of “even an hour of sleep makes a big difference in weight status.”

How much sleep is enough? The National Sleep Foundation recommends that children between 5 and 12 years of age need 10 to 11 hours of sleep each night. Teenagers need a little more than 9 hours of sleep per night.

In a study that involved nearly 3,000 children ages 3 to 17 that was initiated in 1997 with a follow-up in 2002-2003, researchers found a trend in children getting less sleep than recommended.

Seven-year-olds were getting fewer than 10 hours of sleep on weekdays and 16 percent of adolescents got fewer than seven hours of sleep during the same period.

“Our study suggest that earlier bedtimes, later wake times and later school start times could be an important and relatively low-cost strategy to help reduce childhood weight problems,” said one of the researchers.

Now just try convincing your boss to start the workday later so the children can get their sleep.

While we’re on sleep, if you’re caught snoozing on the job, just tell the boss you’re saving the company money by protecting your heart. Could be that nodding off for at least half an hour during midday three times a week can result in significantly lower rates of death from heart disease, according to Greek researchers who reported their findings in the Feb. 12 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

Among more than 23,000 Greek men and women, those who napped once in a while had a 12 percent lower risk of death from heart disease, but those who napped for at least 30 minutes three times a week had a 37 percent lower risk of death.

Participants were taken from those enrolled in a study that lasted from 1994 through 1999 and followup occurred through the end of 2005. None of the subjects studied had a history of heart disease, stroke or cancer when the study began.

Men who worked — and presumably under stress — got more of a benefit from naps than men of leisure, the researchers said. Presumably, there were no women of leisure, since that gender wasn’t mentioned in that context.

Don’t forget that another factor could be the Mediterranean diet, which features high-fiber, lowfat foods and red wine.

A daily dose of 2,000 international units (IUs) of vitamin D may reduce the incidence of breast and colorectal cancer by half, say researchers who reported their findings in the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. The current recommended dose is 400 IUs per day. However, the National Institutes of Health recommends against taking more than 2,000 IUs of the vitamin, which is necessary for strong bones.

Vitamin D comes from sunshine, from foods such as milk, bread and breakfast cereals that have been fortified with the vitamin, and from supplements. Watch the sunshine, however. The NIH recommends putting on sunscreen — which blocks the ultraviolet rays that your body uses to make vitamin D — if you’re going to be out more than 10-15 minutes.

Don’t bug your doctor for antibiotics if you don’t really need them. Researchers in Belgium studied subjects who took Zithromax, Biaxin or a placebo (sugar pill) and found that antibiotic use resulted in antibiotic resistance.

The average increase in resistant bacteria was more than 53 percent compared to placebo at day four for Zithromax and an average of 50 percent for Biaxin on day eight. In addition, the effects lasted for as long as six months.

One authority on antibiotic resistance was quoted in a medical news article saying the medical community needs to “get on and do something about it before the antibiotic era finally grinds to its apocalyptic halt.” She added that “antibiotic prescribing affects the patient, their environment, and all the people that come into contact with that patient or with their environment.”

Does that mean you shouldn’t take antibiotics at all? No. Just take them judiciously so the antibiotic bugs don’t take over and make them ineffective altogether.

        

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