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Something everyone knows, it is intuitive, drinking sodas and fruit drinks results in excess weight gain, obesity and type 2 diabetes. But how about when one is pregnant could the child by age 7 suffer from obesity from the sodas mom took while pregnant?

Soda consumed during pregnancy had an effect resulting in higher waist size and BMI for kids years later. A research study* out of Harvard Medical School revealed this reality, another thing to blame your parent for!

This is an impressive study to me; there were face to face meetings with each at the end of the first and second trimesters, and during the first few months after the baby was born. Then kids were followed including measurements, thru out in early childhood, around age 3, and in mid–childhood, around age 8 and up to age 11. Questionnaires on each of kid’s birthdays were filled by moms.

Results- moms who drank more sugary drinks (at least two servings of sugary drinks per day) during had 25% of their children obese by mid–childhood.

The surprise was not the child’s intake of soda but was the mother’s intake during pregnancy having the greater impact on kid’s obesity.

Flu illness can cause death especially in children and elderly. Naturally quick recognition of what is the cause of an illness is critical to stopping any spread. Flu pandemic is a real possibility that has prompted development of a point of care device to rapidly diagnosis an Influenza illness.

Reported in the Journal Analytical Chemistry, this simple hopefully low cost device could allow for office testing with a simple color change determining positive or negative. No needle stick, just a swab from the nose, put swab in device twirl for 10 seconds to release any virus present and then wait. At present 35 minutes later a 70% accurate result for Influenza A is noted by your naked eye. Not costly @$6. for this disposable device.

There is antiviral treatment for Influenza A illness but it must be given early in the illness. This antiviral drug does not work for other viral illnesses.

At present multiple tests are available for ‘rapid’ testing: Prodesse ProFlu+/ProFAST+ (PFlu/PFAST), FilmArray Respiratory Panel (RP), cobas Influenza A/B test (cIAB), and Xpert Flu (Xpt). However these require specialty labs and time. an example, Xpt takes 70 min.- FilmArray Respiratory Panel tests for 17 viruses and 3 bacteria takes about an hour on special device.

Watch what your healthcare provider offers you next.

You’ve surely heard ‘there is an app for that’! Everything is ‘App-able’- well, there’s now an app to diagnosis ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Of course, they state “not to replace a physician diagnosis.”

So how does it work? First, virtual reality (VR) is involved. This is not the first time; in 2012, in both Taiwan and Germany, neuro feedback was measured in rehab for cognitive deficits. Believable scenarios are created, and the response is measured. Don’t rush to the app store just yet – there’s more work to be done – but this is another illustration of how VR technology is being used in healthcare for both diagnosis and treatment.

Given the hundreds of thousands of medical Apps for consumers and medical personnel used for all sorts of health aspects, the FDA has created a digital unit to scrutinize and regulate, including with a ‘third-party certification’ – there are big changes down the pipe.

When fathers are caregivers children’s risk for obesity decreases. Dad in charge equals less TV time and less sugary beverages according to recent study. This positive outcome is noted when dad supervisees dressing, teeth brushing and going to bed. These results of over 3900 children ages 2-4 were published in the journal Obesity and researched by John Hopkins team also finding that fathers take time for walks and play.

Note: Study was limited to 2 parent heterosexual households.