Conversations… | with Dr. Greene

Children who are exposed to even extremely low levels of tobacco smoke in the last 5 days score lower on standardized tests. Their performance on math tests is significantly lower, but lower still on reading tests. Their short-term memory scores appear to be unaffected. These startling results come from an analysis of 4,399 children 6 [...]

Spending time with siblings under two years old (or maybe even lots of time with other infants and young toddlers) appears to be powerfully protective against multiple sclerosis later in life, according to a fascinating study published in the January 26, 2005 Journal of the American Medical Association. Australian researchers calculated how many “infant years” [...]

Some kids who snore have obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition that intermittently interrupts breathing while asleep. We know children with OSA to have a higher chance of having behavioral or emotional difficulties, including problems related to attention, anxiety, depression, aggression, and destructive behavior. Decades ago, taking the tonsils out was a common treatment for [...]

More than 10 percent of American kids between the ages of 2 and 5 are already overweight or obese, according to the January 2005 annual statistics report of the American Heart Association. This number comes from an analysis of children measured in 2002, and is the latest data available. It’s almost half-again as many as [...]

The first person in history known to have survived rabies without getting the rabies vaccine went home from the hospital on New Year.s Day 2005. The story began when a 15-year-old Wisconsin girl named Jeanna Giese was attending a church service on September 12. A bat flew into the building and fell to the floor. [...]

Does stopping by a fast food restaurant a few times a week with your kids really make a difference in their health? A major long-term study has found a strong association between eating fast food more than twice a week and the development of obesity and type 2 diabetes in teens and young adults. CARDIA [...]