Tag Archives: infant health

The Future of Wearable Tech Lies in Smart Clothing

Athos Gear

Wearable fitness trackers are excellent, and depending on the one you choose, you’ll enjoy features like calorie, step, and sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, and more. They’re selling like hotcakes, with every company who could claim a remote link to the technology pushing their own version.

But what if there was a better way?

What if there was more accuracy? More precision? Something that didn’t rely heavily on estimations and algorithms? Something that was specific to each of your two arms, two legs, and everything in between?

That’s exactly what Silicon Valley start-up Athos is currently creating.

While not scheduled to ship to the masses until Spring 2024, Athos is creating a workout clothing line. Shirts and pants with the core technology sewn (quite literally) right into the fabric. And yes, they’re even machine washable. You can wear them and them alone, or under other workout clothing if you prefer.

What Does This Mean for Me?

There are three components that make up the Athos system: Athos Gear, the clothing you wear; Athos Core, a Bluetooth module that keeps track of all your workout data; and the smartphone app. All three components are required. (more…)

Posted on December 10, 2023 by Mike Beauchamp

Are Your Kids Over-Fortified? Too Much of a Good Thing Puts Their Health at Risk

kids-overfortified

Millions of well-intentioned American parents, unbeknownst to them, are over-fortifying their kids with too many nutrients. That’s according to a report published earlier this year by the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

EWG, an American-based health and research organization, analyzed the nutrition facts labels for 1,550 breakfast cereals and found that 114 cereals were fortified by the manufacturer with 30 percent or more of the adult Daily Value of vitamin A, zinc, and/or niacin. They also looked at 1,000 snack bars and found that 27 common brands were fortified with 50 percent or more of the Daily Value of at least one of those nutrients.

Among the most fortified cereals were:

  • General Mills’ Total line
  • Wheaties Fuel
  • Kellogg’s Product 19
  • Smart Start
  • All-Bran Complete
  • Cocoa Krispies
  • Krave

The most fortified snack bars included

  • Balance
  • Kind
  • Marathon

Food Awards: Best & Worst Breakfast Cereals

When foods are fortified, vitamins and minerals that aren’t originally in a food are added by the manufacturer. Classic examples include adding vitamin D to milk, iron to flour, fiber to cereal, and iodine to salt. Since 1998, folic acid has been added to breads, cereals, and other products that use enriched flour in an effort to reduce Spina Bifida and other serious birth defects. The idea of fortification was developed almost 100 years ago to treat common nutrition-deficiency diseases.
But it is possible to consume too many fortified foods, especially by children, because the Daily Values are set for the needs of adults not kids. Furthermore, the Daily Value standards were set in 1968 and so some are higher than levels currently deemed to be safe. (more…)

Posted on November 20, 2023 by Natalie K

Sucking on Your Baby’s Pacifier May Prevent Allergies

Pacifier
  • Sucking on your child’s pacifier to clean it may reduce their risk of developing allergies like asthma and eczema, according to a study at Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital in Sweden.
  • 18-month-old children whose parents cleaned their pacifiers with their own mouths had less likelihood of developing allergies than children whose parents cleaned their pacifiers with tap or boiling water.
  • “Exposure of the infant to parental saliva might accelerate development of complex oral/pharyngeal microbiota that…might beneficially affect tolerogenic handling of antigens by the oral/pharyngeal lymphoid tissues,” study conductor Bill Hesselmar, MD, PhD, wrote. (more…)
Posted on May 6, 2023 by Patrick