Daily Intense Activity Prolongs Life

average age of 62 that wore movement tracking devices on their wrists.

A new study in the journal Nature Medicine suggests that short bursts of intense movement are associated with a lower risk of premature death. The UK researchers analyzed data from about 25,000 non-exercisers with an

Smartphones Make Poor Babysitters

Vigorous intermittent lifestyle physical activity (VILPA) refers to short, sporadic bursts of exertion done as part of daily living, such as walking very fast while commuting to work or climbing stairs. The scientists found that compared to participants that engaged in no VILPA, those that did just one to two minutes of VILPA three to four times daily exhibited a 38 to 40 percent lower risk of death over the course of seven years. They also noted that just a few minutes of VILPA throughout the day reduced cardiovascular disease-related mortality by up to 49 percent. Similar results were obtained when they analyzed vigorous physical activity in roughly 62,000 participants that exercised regularly. VILPA in non-exercisers appears to elicit similar effects to vigorous physical activity in exercisers, suggesting that VILPA may be a suitable physical activity target, especially in people not able or willing to exercise on a regular basis.

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Parents are busy people, often juggling multiple commitments. Add a toddler meltdown to the mix, and it is easy to understand why parents may reach for a tablet, smartphone or other screen to calm and occupy the child. A new study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that children pay a price for this strategy.

Researchers at the University of Michigan concluded that the frequent use of mobile devices to calm young children may displace their opportunities for learning emotion-regulation strategies over time. The cohort study involved a sample of English-speaking parents of typically developing children aged 3 to 5. The scientists gathered baseline data at the start of the study, as well as follow-up evidence after three months and six months.

The participating parents used a five-point scale to report how often they used mobile devices to calm upset children. At each follow-up, the child’s executive functioning and emotional reactivity were assessed. The study found that the frequent use of mobile devices for calming young children was associated with increased emotional dysregulation, especially in boys, and included rapid shifts between sadness and excitement, greater impulsivity and sudden mood changes.