The unexpected rewards of fatherhood.

Fatherhood comes with many rewards and, it must be said, responsibilities. Curiously, and unexpectedly, in some ways, it also seems to come with a biological reward: better health. A very large study of 138,000 men by the AARP, concluded that men who had fathered children, were 17% less likely to die of cardiovascular disease than men who had never done so.

Rather unflatteringly, researchers compared this health effect, to the benefits of owning a dog. Both share in common a simple mechanism: caring for another. It seems that having someone to care about may bring blessings, other than the immediate rewards that come with expressing such care.

The research did not express any conclusions on whether this effect depended on the number of children in anyway, but was expressed in terms of childless or not childless.

Of course, this effect may be no more than another effect altogether: the ill health that might cause a man to be infertile. So, what we might be seeing here, might not be a positive effect of fatherhood, at all, but a negative effect of the inability to father a child. Either way, it does suggest that, in this narrow respect, fathers are healthier than non-fathers. I find it interesting, for it does suggest some kind of positive selection process for better health in the reproductive system itself. Perhaps evolution hasn’t come to as much of a halt, as many people seem to believe (in truth it is, if anything, faster than before, due to new selection processes at work...not all of them beneficial).

Anyway, this research cheered me a little. As the father of three sons, perhaps they bring me another kind of reward, other than the obvious ones inherent in parenting. If so, thank you to my Three Musketeers! (and to my wife for providing them.)

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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Does College make you fat?

I remember being slim once. It was before I went to University. So slender was I, that I even had the proverbial "six-pack". Ah well. So, am I alone in my observation? Am I the only one to leave University heavier than when I arrived?

No. Not by a long way, if a 2005 study by researchers at Washington University, St. Louis is anything to go by. The work was published in the Journal of American College Health.

Principal investigator, Susan S. Deusinger, obtained height and weight data for 764 incoming freshmen at Washington University. At the end of the year, students being students (and therefore implicitly unreliable) only 290 returned for reassessment, despite being offered financial incentives.

However this was enough to decide whether the folklore of the "Freshman 15" (the number of pounds you would gain, along with your courseload in your first year), had any substance. It did. But not quite 15 pounds. Seventy per cent of freshmen students gained an average of nine pounds in their first year.

Researchers were unable to pinpoint a cause. They noted that there were no noticeable changes in dietary habits, or exercise levels from the start of the year, to the end (awful at both ends, by all accounts). Whatever the cause of the gain, it does show that going to College, does make you fat.

Parents of College going children, have, thus, one more thing to worry about: the health of their offspring. It might be wise to educate them a little in wise food choices - and other lifestyle measures, before they leave your sight.

Note, however, that this study only examined the American college student population - it did not address the issue of whether this was a global phenomenon (though it probably is).

(If you would like to read of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and eight months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and one month, or Tiarnan, eighteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, genetics, left-handedness, College, University, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)

Is school food junk food?

When I was at school - which seems both long ago, and not long ago at all - the food was generally filling, stodgy, and rewarding to childish appetites - that is, not healthy at all, in general. Some things don't change. School food today, is, in many places, just as worrisome - perhaps more so.

Yesterday, Fintan went on a school trip. He enjoys these for they give him a chance to see the wider world in operation. His school seems particularly fond of these external activities and not a month passes by without its quota of such visits to places of all kinds.

After he had come home, he enthused about what he had eaten. "I had bread with sugar on it...and french fries." he told us.

I couldn't quite believe what he had said, but I didn't need to ask him to repeat it - for he did so anyway. I think he knew these were things we would not feed him - and so, in this context, they were a kind of treat.

We raised the matter with his school since I, for one, was concerned that this might constitute his daily diet, at that school.

"Today? Oh, when they go on a trip - the teacher makes sure they have a snack."

There are many snacks in the world - but I am not sure that "bread with sugar on it" qualifies as reasonable food for a child - or an adult or even animal for that matter. Some things just should not be eaten - and something so evidently lacking in nutritional wisdom is one of them.

There is a readily available snack, that is lightweight, portable, nutritious - and, in this part of the world, at least, inexpensive. It is called a piece of fruit. Why don't schools think - really think - of the health of their charges and organize a little trip to the supermarket, before any such school trip, so that teachers don't end up buying the kids plastic, empty, life-threatening junk foods?

It mystifies me, that after so many decades and so many generations of protest about school foods - that they should still consist of the most unhealthy choices available, in many places.

I have never eaten "bread with sugar on it" in my life - and I don't see why my four year old child should be fed it while under the care of his school. That sentiment applies to the French fries, too.

The last thing a parent wants is for the school to instil in the child, a taste for junk food. Such a hankering can become a lifelong desire - with disastrous consequences for the child (who will thus become an unhealthy, short-lived adult).

Schools should understand that they have greater responsibilities than just the education of their students: they need to attend to their health and happiness, too.

(If you would like to read more of Fintan, four years and one month, or his gifted brothers, Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, seven years and eight months, and Tiarnan, eighteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)

High IQ promotes longevity

A high IQ confers many advantages on the possessor but perhaps the most valuable, in the long run, is that of a long life.

A UK study on 2,200 participants from Aberdeen, Scotland who took the 11-plus IQ examination in 1932, has thrown up some interesting correlations between IQ and ultimate longevity. The correlation is very strong indeed, compared to other factors which influence longevity.

The basic finding is that the better the child did in an IQ test in 1932, the more likely they were to survive until 76. The difference was marked between those of low IQ and those of higher IQ. A woman who scored one standard deviation above the norm, at IQ 115 in 1932, was TWICE as likely to survive to 76 as a woman who scored one standard deviation below the norm, at an IQ of 85. The correlation with men was not so strong, however, the difference in likelihood of survival in the same instance being 32% in favour of the IQ 115 male.

Now, the researchers were well aware of the known correlation between social status and health - and so this was accounted for in their analysis. Even accounting for the different occupations of the father and the attendant wealth differentials and differences in overcrowding in the households, the correlation remained intact: high IQ, as an independent variable, confers longevity on its possessor.

It is impossible with this information alone to isolate the reason for this correlation. It is likely to involve both genetics and lifestyle factors. Quite simply the high IQ person may have better genes in general and this could be responsible for promoting their health and longevity. There is also the likelihood that the higher IQ person is more likely to avoid such unhealthful habits as smoking, drinking to excess and the like - as well as adopting better dietary and lifestyle practices in general.

Whatever the ultimate cause of the correlation, the fact remains that the brighter your child (or you, are), the longer they are likely to live, INDEPENDENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS. A factor two difference in likelihood of survival for women, with only a one standard deviation IQ advantage above the norm is an advantage of huge dimensions. Most health practices produce relatively small increases in chances of survival: that is the biggest advantage I have ever noted, in my reading, for a single influence. Remarkable.

(If you would like to read of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and six months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, three, and Tiarnan, sixteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted adults and gifted children in general. Thanks.)