The Health News USA March 17 2018

• The use of e-cigarettes is growing rapidly in the United States. However, this surge in popularity is controversial — not only due to the questions posed by researchers over whether or not vaping is harmful, but also because of concerns that teenagers may be using e-cigarettes as a gateway into regular smoking. The FDA have banned the sale of e-cigarettes to individuals under the age of 18. A recent study reported by Medical New Today found that teenagers who had used e-cigarettes had three times the amount of toxic compounds in their bodies than teenagers who had never vaped.
• According to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics, childhood maltreatment and bullying may partially explain why lesbians and bisexual women have higher rates of teen pregnancy than their heterosexual peers. Young lesbians and bisexual women are roughly twice as likely as those who identify as heterosexual to have a teen pregnancy, according to previously published research, and this new study — conducted by researchers at Harvard, the City University of New York and San Diego State — set out to explore what factors contributed to the disproportionate rates.
• At a venture-backed startup called Health IQ, some employees bring sodas and chocolate bars to work, only to have a fellow employee toss their junk food in the trash after spotting it in the kitchen. According to CEO Munjal Shah said it was a policy that its workers wanted. Health IQ’s careers page promoted an office with no sugar, candy bars or soda and said, “If you bring some it will get thrown away.” But now the company is lightening up a bit, and this week toned down the rhetoric on its website. The change of heart came after a developer named David Heinemeier Hansson, who is the creator of Ruby on Rails, tweeted to his 280,000 followers over the weekend that he couldn’t work at Health IQ due to his candy bar habit.
  

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 17th of March 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321205.php

The use of e-cigarettes is growing rapidly in the United States. However, this surge in popularity is controversial — not only due to the questions posed by researchers over whether or not vaping is harmful, but also because of concerns that teenagers may be using e-cigarettes as a gateway into regular smoking. The Food and Drug Administration have banned the sale of e-cigarettes to individuals under the age of eighteen. But more scientific evidence is needed to inform the public debate about the effects of e-cigarettes at population level.

A recent study reported by Medical News Today found that teenagers who had used e-cigarettes had three times the amount of toxic compounds in their bodies than teenagers who had never vaped. And, another recent scientific paper that was covered suggests that the heating coils in e-cigarettes may contribute to these high levels of toxic compounds.

The authors of that paper found that small concentrations of toxic metals were present in the liquid solutions in e-cigarette refilling dispensers, but that these levels were much higher in solutions that had already been heated within e-cigarettes. The authors explain that this finding indicates that it is the heating coils — rather than the solutions themselves — that are the main source of toxic metals.

The authors recommend that efforts should be made at national, state, and local levels to reduce e-cigarette use among young people. This could include taking steps to make e-cigarettes less appealing to teenagers, such as making “kid-friendly fruit flavors” less available.

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/bullying-seen-factor-higher-pregnancy-rates-among-lesbian-bisexual-teens-n855861

According to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics, childhood maltreatment and bullying may partially explain why lesbians and bisexual women have higher rates of teen pregnancy than their heterosexual peers. Young lesbians and bisexual women are roughly twice as likely as those who identify as heterosexual to have a teen pregnancy, according to previously published research, and this new study — conducted by researchers at Harvard, the City University of New York and San Diego State — set out to explore what factors contributed to the disproportionate rates.

Their report, “Teen Pregnancy Risk Factors Among Young Women of Diverse Sexual Orientations,” gathered data from seven thousand one hundred two young women of all sexual orientations to examine teen pregnancy risk factors, such as childhood maltreatment, bullying (as both perpetrators and victims) and gender-nonconformity. Among sexual minorities, developmental milestones and sexual orientation-related stress were additionally examined, as well as “outness” and social involvement in the LGBTQ community.

The study found childhood maltreatment, like being rejected by a family member, and bullying were “significant teen pregnancy risk factors” among all participants, but they were more prevalent among lesbian and bisexual women, which researchers found explains part of the disparity.
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Although it has not been studied, the report speculated young bisexual and lesbian women might engage in sexual behaviors that put them at risk for teen pregnancy in order to “prove” to bullies that they are heterosexual.
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Heron Greenesmith, a senior policy analyst at LGBTQ advocacy organization Movement Advancement Project, told NBC News many avenues, like contraception and abortion, are sealed off for bisexual and lesbian young women due to stereotypes, such as believing bisexual and lesbian women can’t get pregnant. She also noted that young bisexual women face additional stressors, like rejection from both their straight and gay peers after coming out.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/13/health-iq-changes-snacks-policy-after-complaint-on-twitter.html

At a venture-backed startup called Health IQ, some employees bring sodas and chocolate bars to work, only to have a fellow employee toss their junk food in the trash after spotting it in the kitchen. According to CEO Munjal Shah, it was a policy that its workers wanted.  Health IQ’s careers page promoted an office with no sugar, candy bars or soda and said, “If you bring some it will get thrown away.” But now the company is lightening up a bit, and this week toned down the rhetoric on its website. The change of heart came after a developer named David Heinemeier Hansson, who is the creator of Ruby on Rails, tweeted to his two hundred eighty thousand followers over the weekend that he couldn’t work at Health IQ due to his candy bar habit.
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Health IQ, which sells life insurance to what it describes as “health conscious people,” was started by Shah after a health scare he experienced while at Google. The company wanted to create a culture with deeply ingrained health habits, including promoting regular use of the gym, which it said was “right in the middle of the office.” Shah admits that Health IQ might have taken it too far, and acknowledged that the company did a poor job in communicating itself to the outside world. Health IQ’s “Join the Movement” page now says the following: “We’ve received some feedback recently on our Careers page and how we describe our culture and workplace, and we realize we may have missed the mark.” But Health IQ is far from alone among technology companies in pushing healthy behaviors to its employees.
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Shah, who spoke with CNBC on Monday, said that his employees had input into the company’s policies and tested them for more than a year. The ban on sugar, he said, was suggested by one employee who had trouble resisting leftover birthday cake on the kitchen table. As an alternative, the company provides things like nuts, fruit and popcorn. Anyone can keep chocolate or other sweets at their desk.