ScienceDaily: Living Well News

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• Early elementary school start times tougher on economically advantaged children
• Does the moon affect our sleep? Research says no
• Commuting times stay constant even as distances change
• Redesigning the well-child checkup
• Your genes affect your betting behavior
• In managing boundaries between work, home, technology can be both 'friend' and 'foe'
• C. difficile epidemic should concern not only hospital patients but people at home
• Gluten-free diet relieves 'brain fog' in patients with Celiac disease
• Allergic kids and the classroom
• Cover the bases: Sports physicals no substitute for comprehensive checkups
• Most millennial moms who skip college also skip marriage
• Children in low-income homes fare better in kindergarten if moms work when they are babies
• Caffeine affects boys, girls differently after puberty, study finds

Early elementary school start times tougher on economically advantaged children Posted: 17 Jun 2014 07:25 AM PDT Middle- and upper-class elementary school students demonstrated worse academic performance when they were required to start classes early, compared to peers whose school day started later, according to new research.

Does the moon affect our sleep? Research says no Posted: 17 Jun 2014 06:40 AM PDT No correlation between moon phases and human sleep has been found by researchers studying the topic. For centuries, people have believed that the moon cycle influences human health, behavior and physiology. Folklore mainly links the full moon with sleeplessness. "We could not observe a statistical relevant correlation between human sleep and the lunar phases," remarked researchers after a large study completed.

Commuting times stay constant even as distances change Posted: 16 Jun 2014 05:42 PM PDT How much commuting can you tolerate? A new study shows that across countries, people assess their commutes by the time it takes them to complete the trip, generally independent of the distance they have to travel -- as long as they have a variety of commuting options to chose from.

Redesigning the well-child checkup Posted: 16 Jun 2014 05:39 PM PDT A new design for preventive health care for children from birth through age 3 from low-income communities has been developed by researchers. Well-child visits are the foundation of pediatric primary care in the U.S. Accounting for more than one-third of all outpatient visits for infants and toddlers, the appointments are intended to give doctors the opportunity to identify health, social, developmental and behavioral issues that could have a long-term impact on children's lives.

Your genes affect your betting behavior Posted: 16 Jun 2014 12:15 PM PDT People playing competitive games like betting engage two main areas of the brain: the medial prefrontal cortex and the striatum. Researchers scanned 12 genes involved in dopamine regulation in these areas and found that some genetic variants affect how bettors deal with trial-and-error learning, while other variants affect belief learning, that is, how well they respond to the actions of others.

In managing boundaries between work, home, technology can be both 'friend' and 'foe' Posted: 16 Jun 2014 11:15 AM PDT When it comes to managing boundaries between work and home life, technology is neither all good nor all bad, according to ongoing research. Technology, specifically mobile technology, can be alternately used to maintain, erase or manage home and work boundaries along a spectrum, researchers report.

C. difficile epidemic should concern not only hospital patients but people at home Posted: 16 Jun 2014 10:42 AM PDT Without proper infection prevention in hospitals, and now homes, the Clostridium difficile bacteria poses a major health threat, cautions an infection control researcher. While mainly a concern in hospitals, cases of the C. difficile infection (or C. diff) are on the rise in the community, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that has seen increased reports of the infected people who have had no contact with hospital patients with the infection.

Gluten-free diet relieves 'brain fog' in patients with Celiac disease Posted: 16 Jun 2014 10:41 AM PDT Individuals with celiac disease often experience 'brain fog' in addition to intestinal problems, but a new study shows that adhering to a gluten-free diet can lead to improvements in cognition that correlate with the extent of intestinal healing. The findings indicate that ridding the diet of gluten may help address problems that celiac disease patients can experience related to attention, memory, and other mental tasks.

Allergic kids and the classroom Posted: 16 Jun 2014 10:04 AM PDT For parents of kids who have asthma and allergies, getting them ready to head back to school means a lot more planning and preparation than buying new folders and figuring out who their new teachers will be. It sometimes requires meetings with school administrators, teachers and nurses to develop a plan to ensure avoidance of triggers, and safe studying and eating.

Cover the bases: Sports physicals no substitute for comprehensive checkups Posted: 16 Jun 2014 10:03 AM PDT Nearly half of parents say any qualified health care provider – not just a child's usual provider – can do a sports physical, according to a new poll in the United States. However, sports physicals don't have to cover all health concerns if a child is seeing his or her regular provider for regular checkups.

Most millennial moms who skip college also skip marriage Posted: 16 Jun 2014 10:03 AM PDT Waiting until marriage to have babies is now "unusual" among less-educated adults close to 30 years old, sociologists have found. Among parents in a recent study aged 26 to 31 who didn't graduate from college, 74 percent of the mothers and 70 percent of the fathers had at least one child outside of marriage. And, 81 percent of births reported by women and 87 percent of births reported by men had occurred to non-college graduates.

Children in low-income homes fare better in kindergarten if moms work when they are babies Posted: 16 Jun 2014 07:24 AM PDT Kindergarteners from lower-income families who were babies when their mothers went to work outside the home fare as well as or even better than children who had stay-at-home moms, according to new research. Time, stress and money were the main factors the researchers examined to determine the effects of mothers' employment on children.

Caffeine affects boys, girls differently after puberty, study finds Posted: 16 Jun 2014 06:33 AM PDT Caffeine intake by children and adolescents has been rising for decades, due in large part to the popularity of caffeinated sodas and energy drinks, which now are marketed to children as young as four. Despite this, there is little research on the effects of caffeine on young people. Following a recent study, one researcher remarked: "We found an interaction between gender and caffeine dose, with boys having a greater response to caffeine than girls."

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