IN BRIEF (Page 19)

Activity benefits backbone

Cold, wet autumn and winter weather often leads to back problems. But that does not mean sufferers should lay back and hope the pain will go away.

When it comes to the spine, rest and relaxation can quickly lead to poor posture and muscle degradation, warns the Munich-based German Spinal League. Further problems may then hit the vertebrae and spinal discs.

Light activity is good for the spine. A cycle of exercising and relaxing the spine creates a pumping activity whereby spinal discs soak up water and nutrients like a sponge.

Walking, Nordic walking and cross-country skiing are all healthy for the back, says Reinhold Schneiderhan, president of the league. Regular swimming is also good for the back.

TV bad for baby's brain

Television is basically not good for babies' brains, according to a German magazine for doctors.

Even special television programs and DVDs designed for babies that claim to promote brain development conversely are more detrimental to children's brains, said the Neu-Isenburg-based magazine.

Babies learned injuriously from television, the report said in reference to the work by brain researcher Professor Manfred Spitzer of Ulm. Babies cannot process the flood of images and noises emanating from the dead box, the report said.

Spitzer said a US study showed that a group of babies aged 9 to 12 months old were read to in Chinese, while another group of babies in the same age group listened to the same stories from a television.

The children in the first group could recognize the Chinese sounds after two months, but those in the TV group didn't learn anything.

Light at end of carpal tunnel

Numb fingers or pain spreading through the hands and arms are both indicators of possible carpal tunnel syndrome or a pinched hand nerve.

Excess stress on the wrist often leads to outbreaks, characterized by swelling of the tendons, reports the Doctor's Newspaper (Arzte Zeitung), published in Neu-Isenburg. Outbreaks can be caused by a badly positioned keyboard or poorly installed bicycle handlebars. Rheumatic diseases can also cause the problem.

Anti-inflammatories and braces are usually used for treatment. If these don't work, experts often recommend surgery.

Weighing in on diabetes

In adults, the development of insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes, is influenced more by current body weight than by birth weight, results of a study in twins suggests. The results also suggest that the postnatal (after delivery) growth pattern is potentially more important in terms of later development of insulin resistance than fetal growth.

Teens' chronic tummy aches

One in five children will develop chronic abdominal pain during adolescence, according to a new study in English schoolchildren. The problem was more common in girls, with one-third reporting persistent stomach pain, compared to 13 percent of boys, Dr A. El-Metwally of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland and colleagues found, but the reasons for the gender difference remain unclear.

Coffee, tea lower cancer risk Coffee and tea lovers may have a slightly reduced risk of developing kidney cancer, research hints. The findings, based on an analysis of 13 previous studies, suggest that coffee and tea may be protective against kidney cancer, while milk, soda and juice seem to have no effect one way or the other.

Premature delivery links found

High cholesterol and inflammation during pregnancy may increase a woman's odds of premature delivery, a study suggests. Researchers found that pregnant women with elevated levels of cholesterol or C-reactive protein - a marker of inflammation in the body - were at increased risk of having their baby prematurely. Elevations in both measures raised the risk even further.

Agencies

(China Daily 12/26/2007 page19)