Medical researchers continually learn more about everything from the effects of spanking to whether you should "cheat" on your diet. The following roundup highlights some of the latest health studies and developments and what they may mean for you:
Spanking doesn't help – it causes harm
Child psychologists have maintained for years that spanking harms children, and a new study from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan backs that up. Researchers looked at data from five decades' worth of studies – 75 in all – and came to the conclusion that spanking actually makes children more likely to misbehave in the future.
The negative effects continue later in life, researchers said, leading to antisocial behavior, mental health issues and trouble determining right from wrong. The effects were similar to those seen in children who were physically abused. Instead of spanking, experts recommend putting children in a timeout to give everyone involved a chance to calm down.
Coffee's not cancerous, but very hot drinks are
Very hot drinks, including coffee and tea, can lead to an increased risk of cancer of the esophagus, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The issue isn't with the coffee or tea itself, but instead lies with its temperature. (The WHO has removed coffee from its list of known carcinogens.) A panel of scientists reviewed about 1,000 studies and determined that drinking very hot beverages – above 149 degrees F – is linked to a higher risk of this specific type of cancer. This is cooler than much of the coffee served.
People with Barrett's esophagus, a condition that can precede esophageal cancer, may want to discuss the findings with their doctors.
Medical errors kill almost as many patients as heart disease
Medical errors cause more deaths in the U.S. than any disease except heart disease and cancer, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins Medicine. These errors include everything from tools mistakenly left in patients after surgery to a misdiagnosis.
The researchers say that the true cause of patient deaths is often masked by the medical coding system and that more transparency and investigation is needed.
Same-sex households don't have a specific impact on children's health
Children from same-sex households are no different than different-sex households when it comes to children's health, according to a study performed by researchers affiliated with the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, the University of Amsterdam and Columbia University.
Even though same-sex parents reported having more parenting stress, children raised in households with parents who have the same gender showed no difference in overall health, well-being, learning and emotional difficulties when compared to households in which parents have different genders.
Very few people meet all criteria for healthy lifestyle
Few people in the U.S. are meeting the four criteria necessary for a healthy lifestyle – eating a balanced diet, being active, meeting the recommended body fat percentage and not smoking. In fact, only 2.7 percent of people meet all four criteria, a recent study conducted by researchers at Oregon State University, the University of Mississippi and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga found. The goals were described as reasonable, with the activity goal being set at 150 minutes of activity a week.
In a glimmer of good news, only 11 percent of people were found to meet none of the goals. Results varied according to gender, age and ethnicity. Mexican-American adults have, on average, a healthier diet, and women tend to have a healthy diet and not smoke, but they don't get enough exercise. People older than 60 weren't as healthy as their younger counterparts, but they were more likely to have healthier diets and not smoke.
Cheating may help your diet
Alternating between a high-fat and balanced diet may help control body weight, according to researchers at the University of Georgia's College of Pharmacy. Alternating between the two types of diets helped mice in the study control their weight and also prevented insulin sensitivity and accumulated fat in the liver, two common side effects of obesity.
Since the study was conducted on mice, more study is needed, but researchers think an alternating diet may yield health benefits while being easier to maintain than one that's very strict.
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