Second-hand smoke increases fatness, hinders cognition in children

[Northerner]

Exposure to second-hand smoke is associated with a larger waist and poorer cognition in children, researchers say.

"The take-home message is that for these children, smoke exposure was connected to two major adverse health outcomes, one above the neck and one below the neck," said Dr. Catherine Davis, clinical health psychologist at the Georgia Prevention Institute at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.

Researchers looked at passive smoke exposure in 220 overweight or obese 7-11-year-old boys and girls. They found smoke exposure associated with nearly all measures of adiposity in the children, including bigger bellies and overall fat. "And every single one of our cognitive measures was poorer in the smoke-exposed children," said Davis, corresponding author of the study in the journal Childhood Obesity.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160128133257.htm

Hmm... not saying it's a good thing, but my Dad smoked 40-60 ciggies a day throughout my childhood and I was skinny as a rake 🙄

 

[Matt Cycle]

Controversial I know - but isn't it about time they just banned smoking completely?

 

[Northerner]

Controversial I know - but isn't it about time they just banned smoking completely?

I'm amazed that anyone takes it up these days, given the cost and what is now known about it - things were very different in my early teens when I started, and my Dad often related how, when he was in the Paras, they were all given a big cigarette allowance and basically everyone smoked. It seems to me that now it is so expensive and so difficult to find anywhere you can actually do it, it's not worth the effort! It will be interesting to see where the 'vaping' leads - there hasn't been time yet for any dangers to be fully uncovered.

 

[Matt Cycle]

All the people I know who smoke, admittedly not a huge number, want to give up. Not one of them wants to carry on because they enjoy it. By banning it it makes the decision for them. Cold turkey!

 

[trophywench]

Would work for me Mark, but I'd have absolutely NO fingernails and I'd be fat as a barrage balloon.

Which curiously I never have been despite growing up in a smoking household, smoking myself since I was approx. 14 or 15, and I did an 'intelligence' type test at Coventry Uni a few weeks ago, to aid them in Dementia research. All sorts of things - a row of shapes, spot the odd one out, which one follows, similes, measurement, weights, sums, English comprehension - all sort of things - I said Blimey - that was like doing my 11+ ! - but don't worry, they were definitely different Questions!

When I'd finished and she turned the stopwatch off, she actually said I'd recorded the fastest time she'd so far seen. I said BUT - are the answers actually correct? and laughed. She said she'd actually been checking them upside down as I did them and she reckoned at least most of em were. I laughed again and said 'That's what I thought too! ' LOL

Quite fun! I used to love stuff like that when I was little.

Considering the actual report - if it's actually right - it's probably because WE spent one helluva lot of time outdoors and otherwise away from the smoke - and modern kids do NOT.