Latest / Morning Medical with Dr. Chow / Teen Vaping Trends, Ultraprocessed Foods, and Sweden's Screen-Time Guidelines for Toddlers

Transcript

Teen Vaping Trends, Ultraprocessed Foods, and Sweden's Screen-Time Guidelines for Toddlers · Morning Medical with Dr. Chow

• 0:00
  Good morning, and welcome to another episode of Morning Medical with Dr.
• 0:03
  Chow.
• 0:04
  I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:06
  Chi-Ming Chow.
• 0:07
  Today we have some exciting and important updates in the world of health and medicine.
• 0:12
  Let's dive right in with our first story: Teen vaping rates have hit a 10-year low in the
• 0:17
  United States.
• 0:21
  Fewer adolescents are vaping this year than at any point in the last decade, according to
• 0:26
  government officials.
• 0:28
  This is a significant drop and a monumental public health win.
• 0:33
  The latest survey numbers, published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, show the
• 0:38
  teen vaping rate fell to under six percent this year, down from seven point seven percent in
• 0:43
  2023.
• 0:46
  More than 1.6 million students reported vaping in the previous month -- about one-third the
• 0:51
  number in 2019, when underage vaping peaked with the use of discrete, high-nicotine
• 0:57
  e-cigarettes like Juul.
• 0:59
  This year's decline was mainly driven by a half-million fewer high school students who
• 1:04
  reported using e-cigarettes in the past month, officials said.
• 1:08
  Vaping was unchanged among middle schoolers, but remains less common in that group, at three
• 1:13
  point five percent of students.
• 1:15
  Brian King, PhD, MPH, the FDA's tobacco director, told reporters, "This is a monumental
• 1:22
  public health win.
• 1:24
  But we can't rest on our laurels.
• 1:26
  There's clearly more work to do to further reduce youth use."
• 1:30
  Interestingly, the drop in vaping didn't coincide with a rise in other tobacco industry
• 1:35
  products, such as nicotine pouches.
• 1:38
  Sales of small, flavored pouches like Zyn have surged among adults.
• 1:44
  These pouches come in flavors like mint and cinnamon and slowly release nicotine when
• 1:50
  placed along the gumline.
• 1:53
  This year's U.S.
• 1:54
  survey shows one point eight percent of teens are using them, largely unchanged from last
• 1:59
  year.
• 2:01
  King emphasized, "Our guard is up.
• 2:03
  We're aware of the reported growing sales trends and we're closely monitoring the
• 2:07
  evolving tobacco product landscape."
• 2:10
  The federal survey involved more than twenty-nine thousand students in grades six
• 2:15
  through twelve who filled out an online questionnaire in the spring.
• 2:20
  Health officials consider the survey to be their best measure of youth tobacco and
• 2:25
  nicotine trends.
• 2:26
  Thursday's update focused on vaping products and nicotine pouches, but the full publication
• 2:31
  will eventually include rates of cigarette and cigar smoking, which have also hit historic
• 2:36
  lows in recent years.
• 2:38
  Officials from the FDA and CDC attributed the big drop in vaping to recent age restrictions
• 2:45
  and more aggressive enforcement against retailers and manufacturers, including Chinese
• 2:50
  vaping companies who have sold their e-cigarettes illegally in the U.S.
• 2:56
  for years.
• 2:58
  Use of the most popular e-cigarette among teens, Elf Bar, fell thirty-six percent in the
• 3:04
  wake of FDA warning letters to stores and distributors selling the brightly colored
• 3:08
  vapes, which come in flavors like watermelon ice and peach mango.
• 3:13
  The brand is part of a wave of cheap, disposable e-cigarettes from China that have
• 3:19
  taken over a large portion of the U.S.
• 3:21
  vaping market.
• 3:22
  The FDA has tried to block such imports, although Elf Bar and other brands have tried to
• 3:28
  find workarounds by changing their names, addresses, and logos.
• 3:33
  Teen use of major American e-cigarettes like Vuse and Juul remained significant, with about
• 3:39
  twelve percent of teens who vape reporting use of those brands.
• 3:44
  In 2020, FDA regulators banned fruit and candy flavors from reusable e-cigarettes like Juul,
• 3:51
  which are now only sold in menthol and tobacco.
• 3:55
  But the flavor restriction didn't apply to disposable products, and companies like Elf Bar
• 4:00
  stepped in to fill the gap.
• 4:02
  Other key findings in the report include that among students who currently use e-cigarettes,
• 4:08
  about twenty-six percent said they vape daily; nearly ninety percent of the students who vape
• 4:13
  used flavored products, with fruit flavors as the overwhelming favorite; and Zyn is the most
• 4:19
  common nicotine pouch among teens who use the products.
• 4:23
  Are some ultraprocessed foods worse than others?
• 4:26
  This is a question that's been on the minds of many, especially given the rising concern over
• 4:30
  the health impacts of ultraprocessed foods.
• 4:33
  Name a common condition — heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, dementia, irritable bowel
• 4:39
  syndrome — and chances are good that following a diet high in ultraprocessed foods has been
• 4:44
  linked to it.
• 4:46
  But the ultraprocessed food category is large and wide-ranging.
• 4:51
  It makes up an estimated seventy-three percent of the United States food supply and contains
• 4:57
  stereotypically 'unhealthy' products like sodas, candies, and hot dogs, as well as
• 5:02
  seemingly 'healthy' ones like whole grain breads, breakfast cereals, flavored yogurts,
• 5:06
  and plant milks.
• 5:08
  It is a 'hodgepodge of foods,' some of which are likely more harmful than others, said
• 5:12
  Josiemer Mattei, an associate professor of nutrition at the Harvard T.H.
• 5:17
  Chan School of Public Health.
• 5:20
  On Monday, Dr.
• 5:22
  Mattei and her colleagues published one of the largest and longest studies on ultraprocessed
• 5:28
  foods and heart health to date.
• 5:31
  In it, they analyzed the risks of consuming these foods and teased out the worst offenders.
• 5:38
  The new study, published in a Lancet journal, included more than two hundred thousand adults
• 5:43
  in the United States.
• 5:44
  They filled out detailed diet questionnaires beginning in the nineteen-eighties and early
• 5:49
  nineteen-nineties and completed them again every two to four years for about thirty years.
• 5:55
  Most of the participants in the study were white and worked as health professionals.
• 6:00
  The researchers looked at how the participants’ ultraprocessed food consumption related to
• 6:05
  their chances of developing cardiovascular disease.
• 6:09
  After adjusting for risk factors like smoking, family health history, sleep, and exercise, the
• 6:16
  researchers found that those who consumed the most ultraprocessed foods were eleven percent
• 6:21
  more likely to develop cardiovascular disease and sixteen percent more likely to develop
• 6:27
  coronary heart disease during the study period compared with those who consumed the least
• 6:32
  ultraprocessed foods.
• 6:33
  The highest consumers also had a slightly, but not significantly, elevated risk of stroke.
• 6:40
  How much screen time should toddlers have?
• 6:43
  According to Swedish public health authorities, the answer is none.
• 6:46
  This week, Sweden recommended that children under the age of two should not use any digital
• 6:52
  media.
• 6:53
  The move comes as parents, pediatricians, and governments grapple with the challenges of
• 6:58
  today's tech-saturated world.
• 7:01
  Jakob Forssmed, Sweden's Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health, emphasized the need
• 7:06
  to "take back control" and give children "the ability to have a different kind of childhood."
• 7:13
  The goal of Sweden's policy is to reduce distractions, promote healthy development, and
• 7:18
  help preserve the innocence of childhood.
• 7:21
  But not everyone agrees that the guidance is practical.
• 7:25
  Some experts argue that the recommendations, although well-intentioned, may be too
• 7:30
  unrealistic and judgmental to be widely adopted.
• 7:33
  So, what's the debate all about?
• 7:37
  Sweden's new screen-time recommendations fall into four main categories.
• 7:42
  First, duration.
• 7:44
  No screens for children under two, a maximum of one hour for children aged two to five, two
• 7:49
  hours for children aged six to twelve, and three hours for teenagers.
• 7:55
  Second, control.
• 7:57
  Sweden advises parents to follow the age limits provided by social media and game companies and
• 8:03
  to keep tabs on what their children are using.
• 8:06
  Third, sleep.
• 8:08
  No screens should be allowed before bedtime or in the bedroom.
• 8:11
  This is a recommendation that sleep scientists say is also beneficial for adults.
• 8:16
  Finally, self-reflection.
• 8:19
  Parents should consider their own screen time, which can cut into their interactions with
• 8:23
  their children and set the tone for their child's screen habits.
• 8:28
  In a phone call, Forssmed described the recommendations as an effort to help families
• 8:33
  balance physical activity, relationships, schoolwork, and sleep, while setting healthy
• 8:41
  habits.
• 8:42
  He also highlighted a "sleep crisis" among older children, which he said could lead to
• 8:48
  mental health challenges.
• 8:50
  Sweden's guidance for toddlers builds on similar recommendations from other countries.
• 8:56
  For instance, pediatric health experts in the United States and Ireland recommend no screens
• 9:01
  before eighteen months, except for video chats with known adults.
• 9:06
  In Canada and Australia, the recommended age jumps to two years, with no exceptions for
• 9:12
  video chats.
• 9:14
  France may take it even further.
• 9:16
  President Emmanuel Macron commissioned a report suggesting that children under three should
• 9:22
  have no exposure to screens, including television.
• 9:26
  The report is aptly titled "Children and Screens: In Search of Lost Time," a nod to
• 9:32
  Marcel Proust.
• 9:34
  Many experts argue that there is no educational benefit to screen use for children who are
• 9:39
  still learning basic skills like walking, talking, and socializing.
• 9:44
  Some worry that too much passive screen time could make children less active during their
• 9:49
  critical developmental years.
• 9:52
  Sebastian Suggate, a professor of education at the University of Regensburg in Germany,
• 9:57
  pointed out that "from a neurobiological point of view, there's a massive amount going on in
• 10:03
  the first years of life.
• 10:05
  There's just no substitute for the three-dimensional world for that."
• 10:09
  A study published last year in JAMA Pediatrics analyzed about seven thousand one hundred
• 10:15
  mother-child pairs and found that more screen time at age one was associated with
• 10:18
  developmental delays in communication and problem-solving when the children were between
• 10:26
  two and four years old.
• 10:29
  Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a professor of
• 10:33
  psychology at Temple University, stated, "The most educational thing for a young child is
• 10:39
  another human being — who is not looking at a phone."
• 10:44
  However, some researchers believe the policy is unrealistic.
• 10:48
  What parent has not handed a fussy child a screen to keep them quiet in public, or to buy
• 10:53
  some much-needed alone time?
• 10:55
  Dr.
• 10:56
  Suggate noted that longer working hours for parents, smaller family sizes, urbanization,
• 11:02
  and a general fear of letting children play alone outside mean that kids are often less
• 11:06
  able to amuse themselves.
• 11:09
  Andrew K.
• 11:10
  Przybylski, a professor of human behavior and technology at the University of Oxford, said
• 11:15
  the bans could be "shaming" parents who have few other options.
• 11:20
  He also argued that the type of activities on a phone might be more important than the amount
• 11:25
  of time spent.
• 11:27
  "It has a flawed part, which is about raw hours, which probably don't matter," Przybylski
• 11:34
  said of Sweden's recommendations.
• 11:36
  "But it has really good common-sense parts to it, which, again, is about the balance of the
• 11:43
  online world, the screen world, and the offline world."
• 11:49
  As children go back to school, Sweden's guidance comes at a time when efforts to
• 11:53
  restrict screen access are gaining momentum globally.
• 11:58
  In the United States, at least eight states have moved to cut down on students' phone use
• 12:03
  during school.
• 12:05
  Many of these efforts were influenced by a UNESCO report published in 2023, which found
• 12:11
  that smartphone usage can disrupt classroom learning.
• 12:14
  The report noted that about one in four countries had a phone ban.
• 12:18
  A year later, that number has risen to thirty percent.
• 12:23
  "Even just having a mobile phone nearby with notifications coming through is enough to
• 12:27
  result in students losing their attention from the task at hand," UNESCO said in a summary.
• 12:33
  Though Sweden does not yet have a policy on phones in schools, Forssmed indicated that they
• 12:38
  plan to address this issue soon.
• 12:41
  Caffeine and sleep may seem like polar opposites, but there may be a benefit to
• 12:45
  combining them.
• 12:46
  The "napuccino" has become a popular method to optimize sleep and wake up with more energy by
• 12:52
  drinking a caffeinated beverage before lying down for a nap.
• 12:57
  In a recent episode of the podcast "The Diary of a Chief Executive Officer" with Steven
• 13:02
  Bartlett, sleep expert Dr.
• 13:04
  Cheri Mah in Redwood City, California, introduced the napuccino as a "useful tool if
• 13:09
  you’re trying to have a temperate boost in alertness and performance."
• 13:13
  A napuccino requires drinking a caffeinated beverage of choice before taking a 20- to
• 13:18
  30-minute power nap, according to Dr.
• 13:20
  Mah.
• 13:21
  The caffeine will begin to kick in 15 minutes after consuming it.
• 13:26
  "If you’re able to fall asleep within five to 10 minutes while the caffeine will start to
• 13:30
  come on board, then when you wake up after 20 to 30 minutes …
• 13:33
  the caffeine will have kicked in," she said.
• 13:37
  Research has shown that the energy from both the caffeine and the power nap is "more
• 13:41
  effective for alertness and performance improvement for a couple of hours," compared to
• 13:45
  only drinking caffeine or napping alone, Dr.
• 13:48
  Mah said.
• 13:51
  Clinical psychologist Kelly Baron, PhD, director of the behavioral sleep medicine lab
• 13:56
  at the University of Utah, described the napuccino as a "really great and scientifically
• 14:02
  tested technique."
• 14:05
  "Having some caffeine, plus a short nap, is better than either one of those alone," she
• 14:10
  told Fox News Digital.
• 14:12
  "By the time you get up from the nap (20 to 30 minutes), the caffeine is kicking in."
• 14:18
  This method has been tested with certain activities, such as driving performance and
• 14:22
  shift work, Dr.
• 14:23
  Baron noted.
• 14:24
  "Short naps with or without caffeine are proven techniques to boost performance for those
• 14:29
  experiencing sleepiness," she said.
• 14:33
  Getting the standard seven to nine hours of sleep per night is ideal, the expert said, but
• 14:38
  that can be challenging for some people.
• 14:41
  Los Angeles-based registered dietitian and nutritionist Ilana Muhlstein agreed that the
• 14:46
  napuccino can be a "great strategy to boost alertness," but also noted it's important to
• 14:51
  consider how people prepare their coffee.
• 14:55
  "Drinking coffee with a lot of added sugar or high-calorie creamers can offset some of the
• 15:00
  potential health benefits," she said.
• 15:03
  Muhlstein suggested drinking black coffee, or with a splash of regular or plant-based milk,
• 15:08
  zero-calorie sweetener like Stevia, or monk fruit.
• 15:12
  "This way, you're reaping the benefits of the napuccino without the drawbacks of excess sugar
• 15:17
  or calories," she said.
• 15:20
  Up to 400 milligrams of daily caffeine is deemed safe for most healthy adults, according
• 15:25
  to Mayo Clinic.
• 15:27
  For more health articles, visit foxnews.com/health.
• 15:31
  Heavy caffeine use can cause side effects for some.
• 15:35
  Anyone with concerns should speak with a health care provider.