JOIN USEffective cleaning of air inside houses
The suggestion comes from Allergy & Asthma Network Mothers of Asthmatics (AANMA).
The non-profit organization has even come up with five tips for spring-cleaning the air inside houses, which will make it lung friendly by reducing allergens and irritants. They are:
Smoking: Ask family members or visitors not to smoke in your home.
Mold: Search under sinks, around tubs and showers, on windowsills and in laundry areas for any signs of dampness and mold. Track the source of water, plug it up and clean up visible mold.
Air it out: Give your bedroom a thorough airing out-wash curtains, linens and bedspreads, and make sure to clean anywhere dust and allergens collect.
Use a HEPA vacuum: If you don’t have one already, consider getting a HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) vacuum. These vacuums have special filters that keep dust and allergens from blowing back into the air in your home.
Replace HVAC filters: Replace your furnace filters before air-conditioning season. And since the filter that comes with your HVAC (heating, ventilating and air conditioning) system isn’t designed to help you breathe better, look into a high-efficiency filter or an air-cleaning unit.
Too much fast food may make kids ‘stupid’
Eating too much fast food can ruin your kid’s performance at school, concludes a new study.
The study, which involved 5,500 primary school children, found that pupils achieved lower scores in tests after eating takeaway meals such as burgers and chips more than three times a week.
Some children’s scores in literacy and numeracy dropped by up to 16 per cent compared to the average, the study claimed.
In the research, researchers from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee tracked the eating habits of children aged 10 and 11 — then compared it to performance in reading and maths tests.
They found just over half of pupils had eaten at fast food restaurants such as McDonald’s up to three times in the last week.
In total, children scored between 58 and 181 points in the reading tests, gaining an average score of 141.5. But after taking other factors into account, pupils who ate fast food between four and six times a week scored almost seven points below average.
Children snacking once a day fell 16 points, while pupils indulging three times a day dropped by 19 points. Similar trends were noted in maths.
Steering clear of the ‘eat for two’ advice
Pregnant women should steer clear of advice to ‘eat for two’, for a new study has found that such a practice may have a negative impact on the mother as well as the baby.
In the study, Alison Stuebe, University of North Carolina, found that women who consumed extra calories, as well as fried foods and dairy, had excessive gestational weight gain.
Stuebe reviewed data for more than 1,300 women and found that those who consumed extra calories, as well as fried foods and dairy products, were more likely to gain more than is recommended during pregnancy — that’s 35 pounds or more for a woman with a normal body mass index, or BMI.
Stuebe found that eating an extra 500 calories a day increased the odds of gaining too much by 10 per cent.