'Sexters' Child Risk Arrest, Problem Uncommon

Sexually explicit material isn't as widespread on kids' cell phones as some surveys have suggested, researchers have found.But 'sexting'—sending or receiving risqué photos or videos via cell phone—can still mean legal trouble for minors."Right now, in most areas, it's a criminal offense," said Kimberly J. Mitchell, a psychologist at the University of New Hampshire in Durham and a co-author on two new reports in the journal Pediatrics. "Child pornography is by definition a sexual picture of a minor."

In one study, Mitchell and her colleagues estimate that U.S. police handled nearly 3,500 cases of sexual images produced by adolescents from 2008 to 2009.Adults were on the receiving end just over a third of the time, while the rest involved only youths.Nearly four out of ten cases led to an arrest, including when the sexting had been "romantic" or "attention-seeking."Fueled by high-profile scandals, sexting has become a hot topic in the media. Earlier this year, Representative Anthony Weiner stepped down from Congress after admitting to sexting in which he sent lewd pictures of himself to young women. 

For minors, there is the added concern that sexually explicit photos or videos may be considered child pornography, even when sent from a girl to her boyfriend or vice versa.Mitchell said parents should make their teens aware of the legal risks and make sure they understand that anything they send could end up on the Internet."Once it's out there you probably won't be able to get it back," she told Reuters Health.And for receivers, Mitchell added, "we are recommending they should delete it and they certainly should not distribute it themselves." But she also cautioned that youth sexting isn't as common as earlier polls have suggested. 

A 2008 survey found one in five teens have sent or posted online nude or semi-nude pictures or videos of themselves, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, a private organization based in Washington, D.C. Mitchell and her colleagues got much smaller numbers in a 2010 national survey, however.Based on phone interviews with more than 1,500 children ages 10 through 17, they found just 2.5 percent had appeared in or produced nude or nearly nude photos or videos. That number dropped to one percent if only sexually explicit material -- naked breasts, genitals or bottoms -- was included. Between six and seven percent of the adolescents said they'd received such images or videos. "Overall, our results are actually quite reassuring," said Mitchell.

"With any sort of new technology that kids become involved in there is a tendency to become easily alarmed," she added. "What we are instead seeing is that sexting may just make some forms of sexual behavior more visible to adults." Bill Albert, a spokesperson for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, welcomed the new findings. He said he wasn't surprised by the smaller numbers, given that Mitchell and colleagues surveyed younger kids and interviewed them over the phone while their parents were around. "I wonder if teens are being as truthful as they might be," Albert told Reuters Health, adding that past surveys have come up with a range of estimates. "It's nothing to panic about, but it's something to address," he said. "It's a good opportunity to sit down with your kid and talk about it."

Sexting, or texting sexually explicit material, by kids and teens isn't as widespread as believed, but it can lead to legal trouble

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Positive psychology has limited health benefits

A psychology technique that encourages patients to think positively and gain confidence helped some with high blood pressure and heart disease stick to medication and exercise goals, according to new research.

But the strategy -- known as positive affect and self-affirmation, or just positive affirmation -- didn't always lead to obvious health benefits. And it's unclear whether any improvements in lifestyle would have continued after the extra encouragement stopped.

"In general, the idea is that as people feel positively about what they're doing, they're more likely to be energized and sustain that over time," said Dr. Geoffrey Williams from the University of Rochester, New York, who wrote a commentary published with three new studies on positive affirmation in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

The studies addressed health goals in three groups of patients. In one, African-Americans with high blood pressure were encouraged to stick more closely to their medication plan. In the other two, people who had asthma or who'd recently had a stent inserted into blocked arteries agreed to exercise more.

All patients were given workbooks and made contracts with doctors about their goals.

Half of the participants in each study -- the positive-thinking groups -- also received small gifts in the mail, and were encouraged to incorporate things that made them happy into their everyday lives and to think about proud moments when they were having trouble sticking to their goals.

In the high blood pressure study, the extra encouragement led to limited success. Slightly more people in the positive-thinking group took their medications; in total, that group took 42 percent of its recommended doses, compared to 36 percent in the "control" group. But there was no difference in changes in blood pressure between the groups after a year.

The researchers calculated that 16 hypertensive patients would need to get the extra support, encouragement and gifts for one more to adhere to a medication plan.

The intervention had no clear effect on physical activity in asthma patients. Regardless of whether or not they were given the encouragement and told to think positively, the patients burned an extra 400 calories per week on average by the end of the year-long study.

There was some benefit in patients who received extra exercise encouragement after having a stent inserted. More than half of them surpassed the goal of burning an extra 336 calories per week after a year, compared to just over one-third of patients who were taught about exercise, but didn't get positive affirmation.

"Overall it's safe to say that self-affirmation... can help patients to engage in healthy lifestyle behaviors," said Dr. Gbenga Ogedegbe from the New York University School of Medicine, part of the NYU Langone Medical Center, and the lead researcher of the blood pressure study.

The theory of improving health and lifestyle through upbeat thinking is related to the "positive psychology" movement, which encourages the study of happiness, rather than focusing only on mental illness.

Ogedegbe said it's possible that combined with other behavioral strategies and improvements in care, positive thinking and affirmation can lead to actual reductions in blood pressure in some hypertensive patients, as well as other health benefits. But it's unclear from this study if that's the case.

One limit of all the new studies, according to Williams, is that they didn't track whether patients continued to take their medication and exercise after the extra encouragement and gifts stopped -- which would be important if the strategy was going to be useful in the real world.

"We need people to be able to carry this out themselves after we have (finished) working with them," Williams told Reuters Health.

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Natural way to protect us from flu

The erratic weather conditions such as now, the influenza virus is easily spread. The smart way is keep your self because when influenza infected the daily productivity will disturbed. Follow these tips to keep the body healthy on flu season.

When you have got the flu, the drugs are prescribed only to suppress symptoms and to help temporarily. Therefore, it is better to try some natural ways to prevent themselves infected with the flu.

Here are some natural methods that are easy and can keep you from the flu :

1. Drink warm water
Soup and tea is the most preferred beverage during the winter. The heat from these drinks will be transferred from the esophagus to the respiratory tract. This loosens the mucus and allow you to easily remove phlegm. In addition, hot beverages will also boost the immune system so you do not susceptible to flu. In addition to tea, another example is the warm lemon and ginger water.

2. Drink mineral water much
Consume more fluids either from water or juice can help replace the lost of fluids due to fever and respiratory evaporation. This condition will help loosen the mucus that makes a person feel better.

Body well hydrated also keeps your body functioning properly so that drinking enough water can also alienate you from the risk of infection.

3. Gargling salt water
Bring a lot of salt water to help reduce the discomfort of sore throat. Salts can also pull out the excess water in the throat tissue, reduce inflammation, and clear mucus and relieve irritation in the throat. This method can also avoid you from the flu infection.

4. Stop smoking
Recent statistics show that heavy smokers were more likely to suffer from flu and severe respiratory distress, because smoking can dry the nasal cavity and affects the immune system.

5. Reduce alcohol consumption
Alcohol not only causes dehydration of the body but also makes you vulnerable to contracting the flu in other ways. The more heavily you drink, the more likely to get infected and suffer from complications.

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Anemia Threatens Children's Intelligence

Anemia iron deficiency is generally caused due to malnutrition, poor food absorption, rapid growth of infants and adolescents, kecacingan, chronic infection, or disease that causes destruction of red blood cells. Anemia is a serious problem, According dr.Soedjatmiko, Sp.A (K), iron-deficient children in infancy has a risk of long-term growth and development of serious, such as impaired concentration and intelligence of children learning to decline. "Iron deficiency in the womb until age 2 years would interfere with the development of the branches and connections between brain cells so that the children of low intelligence," said Soedjatmiko.

Moreover, iron deficiency also inhibits the formation of neurotransmitters that are important for emotional control, concentration and behavior. "As a result, children prone to disorders such as aggressive behavior and low problem-solving capacity". 

Stages

Although anemia has been better known for causing the typical symptoms such as pale, weak, tired, and lethargic, but apparently according to Prof.Djajadiman, actually had iron deficiency can occur before causing symptoms. "When anemia occurs in the long term, despite low levels of hemoglobin, may not show typical symptoms because the body has to adapt."

He added, anemia does not happen overnight but through three stages. The first is the depletion of iron or iron deficiency early stages of the body. "At this stage the body's iron reserves began to decrease but still normal iron in the plasma as well as hemoglobin and hematocrit values," said him.

The next stage is iron deficiency without anemia in which the reserves of iron, iron in plasma was also reduced but hemoglobin is still normal. At the level of further iron deficiency anemia have occurred in which the iron in the plasma and hemogloin value has decreased.That is why, according to the actual examination Djajadiman hemoglobin alone is not enough to tell if a child has ADB or not. "It also examined the levels of serum ferritin shows total reserves of iron," added him.

Supplementation

Anemia is not addressed clearly will affect the quality of future generations because of the consequences of anemia in childhood will continue into adulthood. Currently IDAI has issued guidelines for iron supplementation to children and infants to avoid the ADB. Iron supplementation is also in line with WHO guidelines in 1998 stating that the prevalence of anemia was more than 40 percent should be given iron supplements without a screening done.

"If you just rely on foods that contain iron is not enough because the kids have to eat food in abundance, whereas the stomach capacity of a child," said Djajadiman. Do skirining on all children who are at risk of ADB also considered too expensive. Added by Soedjatmiko, iron supplementation has been shown to be safe. "Some research has demonstrated, in a low-dose iron supplementation is not harmful" she said. He cites the results of research in Chile to 1123 healthy infants who were born full term with normal hemoglobin levels and iron supplementation administered entirely. The result, babies who got the ax is not fussy and increased social interaction.

Iron supplementation, according to dr.Badriul Hegar, Sp.A (K), chairman IDAI, coupled with efforts to increase understanding of the dangers of anemia and prevention efforts. "Not only in terms of iron alone but improved diet as a whole, starting with pregnant women," said him.

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eating quickly ?? be carefull for this habit

For people who have a habit of eating quickly, should be more carefull. Cause the habits are often carried away when we're eating food. In fact, some studies show that eating in a hurry can be bad, one of them being overweight (obesity).

A recent study proves that eating quickly can lead to diabetes in the elderly. That's because someone who used to spend a little chewed food by the number and then immediately swallowed up will increase the amount of sugar in the blood stream immediately. As a result, the body will be more prone to impaired glucose tolerance, also known as prediabetes.

Dr. Pradeep Ratnaparkhi, researchers are testing the topic outline, "The level of glucose in the blood in people with impaired glucose tolerance is higher than usual, so they are at high risk of diabetes," he said
prediabetes condition is not controlled it will quickly lead to type 2 diabetes. "In the past 10 years these people are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes with the percentage of 50 percent," he explained.

Pradeep added, eating too quickly can also lead to an increase in the number of calories consumed. This condition will eventually lead to weight gain which in turn is associated with pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Instead, by eating slowly someone usually will feel full faster.

Ratnaparkhi suggested, "Healthy eating and regular exercise can help people with pre-diabetes to maintain glucose levels under control. So eat slowly to stay slim and fit".




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Important rules while Drinking Juice

Drinking juice is helping us to benefit from the fruit in a practical way. We can obtain the benefits of various fruits without having to eat them one by one. Body is also more easily absorb the nutrients that exist in the juice. Thus, a healthy juice drink and be practical.

Fruit juice is one way to meet the needs of beneficial vitamins and minerals that boost immunity from disease. But, do not process them in order to gain the maximum benefit of the body. Apparently, there are rules to drink juice juice the maximum value for your health.

Important rules while Drinking Juice

Juice processing that is not true, the wrong time or wrong way of looking for the juice to make the juice is reduced to the body. In order for refreshment is not in vain, some rules in the juice drink, among others:
 

Juice is not a substitute for food 

When on a diet or health, it is okay to change your dinner with a glass of juice. But, that does not mean breakfast and lunch as well just drink the juice with the intention to lose weight. Nutritional needs still to be met from other foods. Fruits will not be able to meet the needs of 1800 kcal, the minimum number of calories that must be met in a day. As a result, the immune compromised.
Although weight loss may be decreased drastically, but will quickly eat up time with the original pattern. Because the juice does not reduce the fat, just reduce the water in the body.

Acid juice is not for the morning 

Glad you opened the day by drinking juice in the morning? Indeed, the morning is the best time to drink the juice, because fruit juice contains lots of water and fiber that will be beneficial for digestion. In order not to upset stomach, avoid acidic fruits for juice in the morning. Banana, papaya, apples or carrots may be the right choice for fruit juice in the morning.
 

Not a substitute for fruit juice 

Drinking juices and over again, without directly consuming the fruit is not good. This can increase body weight. The need to keep taking the fresh fruit beneficial to the stomach, because during the process of chewing, stomach going to work and burn approximately 20 kcal. So, keep the consumption of fresh fruit, not all can be replaced with juice.

Juice is not necessarily low in calories 

Does not mean all the fruit is low in calories and will help your diet. Fruits such as avocado, jackfruit and durian fruit is high in calories, which is about 200 kcal. If you want juice with a low calorie, can pick oranges, apples, melon, watermelon or pear calorie content of about 80 kcal. If overweight, you should choose a low calorie fruit juice.

Juice drink with pulp

 If you make juice using a juicer, the waste would be separated. Although it may feel uncomfortable, do not waste the fruit pulp that has been separated. If using a blender, do not strain to get any water, let the dregs remained mixed and drunk. In the fruit pulp fiber and vitamins contained, the most common is vitamin C. It is very beneficial for the body.
 

Juice should not be stored for a long time

Juice that has been made should be taken. Create a new juice and drink in the afternoon or evening lowers the benefits of juice. Vitamins that there can be damaged by oxygen and ultraviolet that are around us. If you can not directly consume the juice, it can be done by making cold juice as possible, then stored in a sealed aluminum thermos. Cold conditions and protection from light to help maintain vitamin that is on the juice for 4 hours.
 

Juice with more variety   
Do not just make the juice from the fruit that's it. For example, because you like oranges, every day they drink only juice orange juice. Replace it with other fruits that contain different vitamins and minerals for the body to benefit. Combines a variety of fruit in one glass of juice is a practical way for the body to gain some benefit in a single gulp. A mixture of oranges and apples, bananas and apples, carrots and tomatoes, or apples and grapes are a combination that can be tried for giving some benefits as well.

Does not always have fruit juice

Vegetables can be made into juice. Bitter taste in the vegetables can be overcome by combining vegetables with fruit, so it feels more fresh.
Not only vegetables, juice can be a combination of fruit and spices. For example, by adding ginger to warm the body also increase endurance. Can also add a little cinnamon on your juice.
 

Use the juice of fresh fruits 

In order to obtain the maximum benefits, use fresh fruits or vegetables that are still in fresh condition. Do not they see the fruit or vegetables begin to wilt, then out of love finally made juice. This will make the juice quality is reduced.
 

Juice with added sugar, honey or milk

To add to the enjoyment of juice, usually added sugar, honey or milk. There are a few rules if you want to add the juice with one of these partners. Consider the amount of sugar or honey to be used or the choice of milk.

If you want to add the sugar, try to remember first is how much sugar you eat today. Ideally, your body may only receive 50 grams of sugar per day. One teaspoon of sugar, weighing about 4 grams. If you already enjoy a morning of ice cream, cookies, cake or sweet tea, adjust the sugar to be added to the juice to avoid excess sugar consumption.

Honey is a natural sweetener that contains carbohydrates, protein, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. But the calorie content of honey is greater than the sugar. One tablespoon of honey has 64 calories kcal. So, if you want to add honey, preferably only in small portions, especially flavor of honey is sweeter than sugar.
 

Add juice to the juice to get additional milk protein, calcium and fat from milk. To consider is the type of milk to be added. If there are no problems with weight, it can use full cream milk. In contrast, the use of low fat milk if you want to maintain weight and that fat is not excessive.

Choose The Right Juice
Juice consumption may be one solution to address the health problems that you face. Choose fruit or body needs to help reduce your health problems. For example, to lower high blood pressure or mengencerkan sputum can make starfruit juice. Tomato juice to help control the sugar in the body. While the mixture of cucumber and carrot for rheumatic complaints.
 

By following the correct rules when drinking juice, healthy drinks will increasingly feel the benefits for the body.

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Tips for Obesity

Obesity is a condition where a person is overweight at 20% from normal weight. The degree of obesity measured by body mass index using the formula (body mass index / BMI), waist circumference, and ratio (ratio) of waist circumference to hip circumference (Waist-Hip Ratio or WHR).

Body Mass Index (BMI) is the formula most commonly used to assess obesity. BMI is obtained by dividing weight by height squared (kg/m2). Value of BMI 25 - 29.9 is classified as overweight (overweight), while a BMI of 30 or more are classified as obese (overweight). Waist circumference is used to assess the amount of abdominal fat content. Ratio (ratio) waist-hip (WHR) was obtained by dividing waist size by hip circumference size. WHR 1 or more (in men and women) showed a risk of obesity.

Obesity is a risk factor that plays an important role against the onset of diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, and breast cancer, prosfat, and colon. thus, this condition can shorten a person's age. The cause of obesity is actually an interaction of various factors (genetic, psychological, socioeconomic, and cultural), such as overeating, excessive alcohol consumption, lack of activity, and slow metabolism. Obesity is generally hereditary and can be experienced by anak2 and adolescents.
 

Some tips to avoid the obesity :

1. Reduce the size of the meal. Live a diet low in fat and high in fiber. 
2. Reduce consumption of foods high in calories derived from fat, such as meat, chicken skin, meat poultry red / black, fried foods, butter, cheese, milk (excluding milk claim), junk food, and all kinds of processed foods.
3. Use vegetable oil, peanut oil, or oil made from whole grains in moderation.
4. The type of food consumed should consist of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free milk.
5. Stop smoking and avoid excessive alcohol consumption.
6. Go with regular aerobic exercise under the supervision of trained instructors.
7. Perform aerobic exercise, like swimming, cycling, walking, and jogging.
8. As far as possible keep your weight in order to remain within normal limits by doing lots of physical activity.
9. Do not take any medicines / herbal slimming without consulting your physician first. 
10. A balanced diet along with worship is the best way to reduce excess weight.

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