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Teen childbirth linked to increased risk for heart disease

Women who became first-time mothers as teens were significantly more likely than older mothers to have greater risks for heart and blood vessel disease later in life, according to new research in  Journal of the American Heart Association , the Open Access Journal of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association. Researchers found that women reporting a first birth before the age of 20 scored significantly higher on Framingham Risk Score -- a measure commonly used to estimate the 10-year cardiovascular risk. In comparison, women whose first births occurred at older ages had lower average risk scores: The lowest cardiovascular risk, however, was among women who had never given birth. "Adolescent mothers may need to be more careful about lifestyle factors that increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, including maintaining a healthy body weight and sufficient physical activity," said study lead author Catherine Pirkle, Ph.D., assistant professor in t

Eating more organic products (fruits), vegetables supports mental prosperity in only 2 weeks

Fruits and vegetables are a pivotal part of a healthful diet, but their benefits are not limited to physical health. New research finds that increasing fruit and vegetable consumption may improve psychological well-being in as little as 2 weeks. Increasing fruit and vegetable intake may benefit psychological well-being. Study leader Dr. Tamlin Conner, of the Department of Psychology at the University of Otago in New Zealand, and colleagues found that young adults who were given extra fruits and vegetables each day for 14 days ate more of the produce and experienced a boost in motivation and vitality. The researchers recently reported their findings in the journal PLOS One. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, adults should aim to consume around two cups of fruits and around two to three cups of vegetables daily. One cup of fruits is the equivalent to half a grapefruit or a large orange, and one cup of vegetables is proportionate to one la

Why are we so awful at creating the correct flu vaccines?

Everybody loves to be the stickler who calls attention to how incapable the flu immunization is, or how poor our reputation is on anticipating the correct match. The shot needs to secure against three or four particular infections, each with their own remarkable hereditary profile, and frequently the yearly expectation is off. Prompt the naysayers. And they’re not wrong. Why is it so difficult to know what sort of vaccine to make? What's more, how might we improve? The flu is a sneaky little devil Influenza viruses are tricky. Unlike more stable diseases, the flu is constantly morphing into ever-so-slightly different forms to evade our annual vaccine campaigns. This is at the core of our need for an annual shot—there’s always a new genetic variant. It’s somewhat akin to antibiotic resistance. Viruses tend to have more genetic mutations because their replication method is prone to errors. To more complex organisms, constant mutations would be problematic (it only takes a few key