Six percent of children in rural areas had a food allergy, compared with 10 percent of kids in urban centers. Sophie Bushwick reports
June 11, 2012?|
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City kids have a smorgasbord of food choices. But they also face food allergies more than do their country cousins.
Researchers mapped food allergies in children across the U.S. And they found more cases per capita in areas with higher population densities. The work is in the journal Clinical Pediatrics. [Ruchi S. Gupta et al., "Geographic Variability of Childhood Food Allergy in the United States"]
The scientists collected allergy information on more than 38,000 Americans under age 18, and then sorted the information by zip code. Six percent of children in rural areas had a food allergy. But that number jumped to 10 percent of kids in urban centers. Peanut and shellfish allergies in particular were more common. Although the frequency of allergies varied by location, their severity did not.
What explains this trend? It could be that rural dirt is good?in the country, children?s immune systems get challenged early and often, and thus more properly trained. Or it could be that urban dirt is bad?city children deal with pollutants that may predispose them toward allergies.
Solving this puzzle could help protect kids from common foods that can do them uncommon harm.
?Sophie Bushwick
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast.]???
MIAMI (CBS4) ? Christine Cramer used to suffer from such severe anxiety that she was unable to perform simple tasks such as doing her taxes or driving over bridges. ?I became paralyzed with fear,? said Christine. Brittany Watkins suffered from emotional food cravings that were ruining her life. ?Every time I was stressed or emotional or upset I would always look for sweets to make me feel better,? Watkins said. But now both women say they?re living free of their fears, thanks to an alternative psychotherapy treatment called EFT, which stands for??emotional freedom technique? also?known as ?tapping.? The practice involves stimulating certain accupressure points on the body while you focus on what?s stressing you out. It can be done with the aid of a therapist or alone during a moment of anxiety. ?It tells your body that the stressful thought you?re having isn?t a real threat to your survival. And once you break the association in your mind between the stressful thought and the fight or flight response one time, it stays broken,? explained Dawson Church, PhD Research Director of the Foundation for Epi Genetic Medicine. EFT was introduced in the 1990s, but recently its popularity has surged. This year, more than half-a-million people signed up for the world tapping summit. ?I believe within a few years we?ll see it in many hospitals, many mental health clinics,? declared Church. But the question remains: does it work? Church and fellow tapping practitioners have published many small-scale studies showing positive results. Like this one, to be published in the October Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, that found stress hormone levels dropped 24% after tapping. No drop was found in the control group. ?So their internal stress biochemistry changed as their emotional state changed as well,? explained Church. But not all researchers are convinced. a study out of Canada found that while tapping accupressure points did show a significant decrease in anxiety and fear, tapping other parts of the body, or even a doll, offered similar results. The American Psychological Association says many more large-scale, peer-reviewed studies must be performed. ?Has this tapping therapy been proven effective?? we asked. ?We don?t think so at this point,? said Rhea Farberman Executive Director for Public and Member Communications American Psychological Association. But Brittany and Christine say they?ve?found their answers and are grateful that tapping has given them a new lease on life. ?Rather than popping a pill, we can tap a couple of accupressure points and immediately neutralize any negative, negative symptom we have,? said Brittany. ?That?s amazing!? The APA suggests sufferers look into proven forms of psychotherapy, such as contacting a mental health professional with proper training. They do not consider EFT a good alternative.
Posted in: IT Risk Management, IT Security & Risk Mgt. surveys and polls, Random Musings, Security Talks & Webinars, Women in Technology. Tagged: Andrew Walls, chigger, Gartner Security and Risk Management, innovate, Michael Dell, Neil MacDonald, Rafa Nadal, transformation, virtual, Wagner.
CipherBlonde is enjoying the beautiful digs, overlooking the Potomac, at the Gaylord National Hotel here in Maryland. To wit, I?m reveling in learning from, and networking with, some of the sharpest minds in IT.
Below are some tasty tidbits from Day 1 @ the Gartner?s IT Security and Risk Management Summit:
Andrew Walls is as impressive in front of 2500 people as he is 1:1. I?m proud that he?s SpectorSoft?s primary analyst, and his opening session remarks were as stimulating and nerve churning as the thought of carmel coated bacon is to my Tex-ican, Mexican fianc?, Sam:
Change is often scary- but it also brings opportunity, and the benefit of positive outcomes.
FOUR key areas are driving the ?stunning pace of change?in IT?, and redefining IT Security Risk: mobile, social, cloud, and the information explosion (big data).
Change?is only accelerating- and to succeed, organizations must adapt even faster than ever, with a continued eye on performance.
Business Continuity + Intelligent Risk Management = ?BUSINESS ASSURANCE?
Protect, Detect, Act (Fix)
Good Tactics are Driven from Sound Strategy; Sound Strategy is Born of Confident Innovation, combined with Resilience
Ray Wagner, Gartner guru geek, is from the Deep South, though he ?elo-cutes? with no accent, while waxing poetic ?bout ?em ginormous Tennessee chiggers, that he compares to daily IT woes. And I thought I was non sequitur.
By the way, Ray, I?d pit my Southern Florida mosquito against your Tennessee chigger, any day. ?My welts are bigger than yours, ?cuz my mosquito is more vicious that yours.? (See notes towards the end of this post, re: size vs. might, from Michael Dell).
Mark Jeffries- I?m writing this blog from the notes I took during your session. I?m envisioning you nodding at this fact, in Double Digits, per Minute. (I?m going to swap out the N.P.M. metric, vs. Likes, for my blogs, going forward).
Nice shout out to the ?Mentalist?, and what a head of hair he has.
Michael Dell, what to say. Your talk was fascinating.
Dell is proof positive that TRANSFORMATION?is possible- only 25% of Dell?s current revenue comes from PC sales, and only 20% from consumers. Wow.
Dell is now a SOLUTIONS company- who is betting on services, virtualized endpoints, and securing IT.
Dell sees themselves as the non-proprietary, ?open guy?, and has figured out a DIFFERENT level of abstraction of the IT problem, that is more interesting and more relevant to their customers & their customers future!!! (That is an Aha moment).
Dell?s Enterprise sales have doubled in the past FIVE years, but much more importantly represent ? of their GROSS Margin.
Software, Services, and Security is more profitable, and faster growing, so Dell is focusing on it.
About 35 minutes into Michael Dell?s talk he first mentioned Microsoft, something about them ?being an important part of the software stack?. Wow. Wow. (He and Bill Gates used to almost jointly write the future, not so long ago, didn?t they..?)
Dell is betting on virtualized desktops, and workstations and will happily manage, secure, and integrate them, no matter who manufactures the hardware. (They will sell theirs, and will build, but won?t build mobile devices, per M.D.).
Dell sees the IT Endpoint Consumerization & Mobility opportunity as Virtualization + Integration + Management.
When asked about how Dell will serve larger customers when they?ve seen the most success in the SMB space, Mike said something to the effect of- Dell believes in building solutions that scale. We use modular, current technology. ?in order to take our solutions up-market or down-market. Size isn?t the determining factor. Our vicious-ness, and desire to innovate/win is.
When asked why companies will buy from Dell vs. from IBM or H.P., Mike said, ?Dell is not tied to legacy systems nor platforms. Dell is willing to start from ground zero, now, to meet customer needs in the best way possible. Dell will innovate, and Dell will evolve.?And how!
Go Rafa; happy French Open victory. Seven is charm. The man with the most ?game?, the least fear, and the most heart Won. Can?t wait for the U.S. Open 2012.
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