Are We Actually Aging Faster Than Our Parents?
We are aging faster than our parents. It seems like every health article now-a-days has a headline like, “40 is the new 30!” Well it turns out, 40 is the new 55. Many people think that since we are living longer, then we must be healthier than our parents when they were our age. We may be wrong. A study out of the Netherlands, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, followed 6,000 people for 16 years and found that people in their forties are now experiencing similar health problems like obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes, as the 50-year-olds did in the previous generation. The consequences of our indolent, calorie-laden lifestyle found that the adults of today are less “metabolically” healthy than in the past. [The Independent]
3-D printed sonograms for blind moms are now available. For an expectant mother, getting the image of your baby in the womb is a joy. It’s the kind of momento that people post on Facebook, hang on the fridge, and pass around to family members. Tecnologia Humana 3D, which actually focuses on building 3-D models from sonogram data to help diagnose prenatal problems, realized that they could also help blind mothers who can not see their sonograms, by giving them a chance to “see” their babies by touch. [Smithsonian]
Wrigley’s new caffeinated gum leads to FDA review. Alert Energy gum launched today and each piece has 40 mg of caffeine, which is about half a cup of regular coffee. The gum is being marketed towards the 25 and older crowd, and while tired adults at work may benefit from the extra jolt of caffeine, there is no way to guarantee that kids won’t get a hold of it, which is why the FDA is stepping in. [Bloomberg]
ICYMI: Abortions are now free in France. Any woman who chooses to have an abortion will be reimbursed 100 percent of the cost by state-sponsored social security, and contraception will be provided to anyone 15- to 18-years-old free of charge. And yet, our lawmakers are still debating the legality of it all. Talk about being behind. [The Daily Beast]
