Aug. 18, 2010 — Teens are more likely to have chronic headaches or migraines when they are overweight, smoke cigarettes, or get little or no exercise, new research shows.

Teenagers in the study with all three negative lifestyle factors had a more than threefold greater likelihood of having frequent, severe headaches than normal-weight, active teens who did not smoke.

Headaches are a common complaint among teenagers, with 5% of teenage boys and almost 8% of teenage girls in one nationwide study reporting frequent migraines. In another study of older teens in Poland, 28% reported having had a migraine headache.

While obesity, smoking, and other lifestyle factors have been shown to influence the frequency and severity of chronic headaches in adults, the new study, published in the journal Neurology, is among the first to explore the relationship in teenagers.

Slideshow: Surprising Headache Triggers

Obesity, Smoking, and Headaches

The study is the first to examine the individual impact of specific negative lifestyle factors like obesity and smoking, says study researcher John-Anker Zwart, MD, PhD, of the University of Oslo.

“We were surprised by how many teenagers with headaches smoked or were overweight or physically inactive,” Zwart tells WebMD. “We were also surprised that the impact of these negative lifestyle factors seemed to add up.”

The research included almost 6,000 students in Norway between the ages of 13 and 18 interviewed about their recent headache history. They also were asked if they smoked and how much they exercised.

Roughly one in five teens (19%) said they were smokers, 16% were overweight, and 31% reported exercising less than twice a week.

Overall, about a third of the girls (36%) and one-fifth of the boys (21%) reported having recurrent headaches within the past year.

More than half (55%) of the overweight, sedentary teens who smoked reported recent frequent headaches, compared to one in four teens with none of these lifestyle factors.

Compared to normal-weight, active, nonsmoking teens, overweight teens, and teens who smoked were 40% and 50%, respectively, more likely to have frequent headaches. Exercising less than twice a week was associated with a 20% increase in the likelihood of frequent headaches.

It is not clear from the research if the negative lifestyle factors caused the frequent headaches or if they act more as triggers in already vulnerable teens.

Start of School Year Is a Vulnerable Time

Adolescent headache specialist Andrew D. Hershey, MD, PhD, tells WebMD that most children and teens with migraines and other severe, chronic headaches are genetically predisposed to have them.

Hershey directs the headache center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

“Children with migraines tend to have a parent who has had them,” he says. “Environmental influences come into play by causing headaches to be expressed more frequently.”

Hershey’s own research, published last year, found that overweight children who suffered from frequent headaches had fewer headaches after losing weight.

webmd.com

Aug. 18, 2010 — Teens are more likely to have chronic headaches or migraines when they are overweight, smoke cigarettes, or get little or no exercise, new research shows.

Teenagers in the study with all three negative lifestyle factors had a more than threefold greater likelihood of having frequent, severe headaches than normal-weight, active teens who did not smoke.

Headaches are a common complaint among teenagers, with 5% of teenage boys and almost 8% of teenage girls in one nationwide study reporting frequent migraines. In another study of older teens in Poland, 28% reported having had a migraine headache.

While obesity, smoking, and other lifestyle factors have been shown to influence the frequency and severity of chronic headaches in adults, the new study, published in the journal Neurology, is among the first to explore the relationship in teenagers.

Slideshow: Surprising Headache Triggers

Obesity, Smoking, and Headaches

The study is the first to examine the individual impact of specific negative lifestyle factors like obesity and smoking, says study researcher John-Anker Zwart, MD, PhD, of the University of Oslo.

“We were surprised by how many teenagers with headaches smoked or were overweight or physically inactive,” Zwart tells WebMD. “We were also surprised that the impact of these negative lifestyle factors seemed to add up.”

The research included almost 6,000 students in Norway between the ages of 13 and 18 interviewed about their recent headache history. They also were asked if they smoked and how much they exercised.

Roughly one in five teens (19%) said they were smokers, 16% were overweight, and 31% reported exercising less than twice a week.

Overall, about a third of the girls (36%) and one-fifth of the boys (21%) reported having recurrent headaches within the past year.

More than half (55%) of the overweight, sedentary teens who smoked reported recent frequent headaches, compared to one in four teens with none of these lifestyle factors.

Compared to normal-weight, active, nonsmoking teens, overweight teens, and teens who smoked were 40% and 50%, respectively, more likely to have frequent headaches. Exercising less than twice a week was associated with a 20% increase in the likelihood of frequent headaches.

It is not clear from the research if the negative lifestyle factors caused the frequent headaches or if they act more as triggers in already vulnerable teens.

Start of School Year Is a Vulnerable Time

Adolescent headache specialist Andrew D. Hershey, MD, PhD, tells WebMD that most children and teens with migraines and other severe, chronic headaches are genetically predisposed to have them.

Hershey directs the headache center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

“Children with migraines tend to have a parent who has had them,” he says. “Environmental influences come into play by causing headaches to be expressed more frequently.”

Hershey’s own research, published last year, found that overweight children who suffered from frequent headaches had fewer headaches after losing weight.

webmd.com

Aug. 18, 2010 — Teens are more likely to have chronic headaches or migraines when they are overweight, smoke cigarettes, or get little or no exercise, new research shows.

Teenagers in the study with all three negative lifestyle factors had a more than threefold greater likelihood of having frequent, severe headaches than normal-weight, active teens who did not smoke.

Headaches are a common complaint among teenagers, with 5% of teenage boys and almost 8% of teenage girls in one nationwide study reporting frequent migraines. In another study of older teens in Poland, 28% reported having had a migraine headache.

While obesity, smoking, and other lifestyle factors have been shown to influence the frequency and severity of chronic headaches in adults, the new study, published in the journal Neurology, is among the first to explore the relationship in teenagers.

Slideshow: Surprising Headache Triggers

Obesity, Smoking, and Headaches

The study is the first to examine the individual impact of specific negative lifestyle factors like obesity and smoking, says study researcher John-Anker Zwart, MD, PhD, of the University of Oslo.

“We were surprised by how many teenagers with headaches smoked or were overweight or physically inactive,” Zwart tells WebMD. “We were also surprised that the impact of these negative lifestyle factors seemed to add up.”

The research included almost 6,000 students in Norway between the ages of 13 and 18 interviewed about their recent headache history. They also were asked if they smoked and how much they exercised.

Roughly one in five teens (19%) said they were smokers, 16% were overweight, and 31% reported exercising less than twice a week.

Overall, about a third of the girls (36%) and one-fifth of the boys (21%) reported having recurrent headaches within the past year.

More than half (55%) of the overweight, sedentary teens who smoked reported recent frequent headaches, compared to one in four teens with none of these lifestyle factors.

Compared to normal-weight, active, nonsmoking teens, overweight teens, and teens who smoked were 40% and 50%, respectively, more likely to have frequent headaches. Exercising less than twice a week was associated with a 20% increase in the likelihood of frequent headaches.

It is not clear from the research if the negative lifestyle factors caused the frequent headaches or if they act more as triggers in already vulnerable teens.

Start of School Year Is a Vulnerable Time

Adolescent headache specialist Andrew D. Hershey, MD, PhD, tells WebMD that most children and teens with migraines and other severe, chronic headaches are genetically predisposed to have them.

Hershey directs the headache center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

“Children with migraines tend to have a parent who has had them,” he says. “Environmental influences come into play by causing headaches to be expressed more frequently.”

Hershey’s own research, published last year, found that overweight children who suffered from frequent headaches had fewer headaches after losing weight.

webmd.com

Aug. 18, 2010 — Teens are more likely to have chronic headaches or migraines when they are overweight, smoke cigarettes, or get little or no exercise, new research shows.

Teenagers in the study with all three negative lifestyle factors had a more than threefold greater likelihood of having frequent, severe headaches than normal-weight, active teens who did not smoke.

Headaches are a common complaint among teenagers, with 5% of teenage boys and almost 8% of teenage girls in one nationwide study reporting frequent migraines. In another study of older teens in Poland, 28% reported having had a migraine headache.

While obesity, smoking, and other lifestyle factors have been shown to influence the frequency and severity of chronic headaches in adults, the new study, published in the journal Neurology, is among the first to explore the relationship in teenagers.

Slideshow: Surprising Headache Triggers

Obesity, Smoking, and Headaches

The study is the first to examine the individual impact of specific negative lifestyle factors like obesity and smoking, says study researcher John-Anker Zwart, MD, PhD, of the University of Oslo.

“We were surprised by how many teenagers with headaches smoked or were overweight or physically inactive,” Zwart tells WebMD. “We were also surprised that the impact of these negative lifestyle factors seemed to add up.”

The research included almost 6,000 students in Norway between the ages of 13 and 18 interviewed about their recent headache history. They also were asked if they smoked and how much they exercised.

Roughly one in five teens (19%) said they were smokers, 16% were overweight, and 31% reported exercising less than twice a week.

Overall, about a third of the girls (36%) and one-fifth of the boys (21%) reported having recurrent headaches within the past year.

More than half (55%) of the overweight, sedentary teens who smoked reported recent frequent headaches, compared to one in four teens with none of these lifestyle factors.

Compared to normal-weight, active, nonsmoking teens, overweight teens, and teens who smoked were 40% and 50%, respectively, more likely to have frequent headaches. Exercising less than twice a week was associated with a 20% increase in the likelihood of frequent headaches.

It is not clear from the research if the negative lifestyle factors caused the frequent headaches or if they act more as triggers in already vulnerable teens.

Start of School Year Is a Vulnerable Time

Adolescent headache specialist Andrew D. Hershey, MD, PhD, tells WebMD that most children and teens with migraines and other severe, chronic headaches are genetically predisposed to have them.

Hershey directs the headache center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

“Children with migraines tend to have a parent who has had them,” he says. “Environmental influences come into play by causing headaches to be expressed more frequently.”

Hershey’s own research, published last year, found that overweight children who suffered from frequent headaches had fewer headaches after losing weight.

webmd.com

Aug. 18, 2010 — Teens are more likely to have chronic headaches or migraines when they are overweight, smoke cigarettes, or get little or no exercise, new research shows.

Teenagers in the study with all three negative lifestyle factors had a more than threefold greater likelihood of having frequent, severe headaches than normal-weight, active teens who did not smoke.

Headaches are a common complaint among teenagers, with 5% of teenage boys and almost 8% of teenage girls in one nationwide study reporting frequent migraines. In another study of older teens in Poland, 28% reported having had a migraine headache.

While obesity, smoking, and other lifestyle factors have been shown to influence the frequency and severity of chronic headaches in adults, the new study, published in the journal Neurology, is among the first to explore the relationship in teenagers.

Slideshow: Surprising Headache Triggers

Obesity, Smoking, and Headaches

The study is the first to examine the individual impact of specific negative lifestyle factors like obesity and smoking, says study researcher John-Anker Zwart, MD, PhD, of the University of Oslo.

“We were surprised by how many teenagers with headaches smoked or were overweight or physically inactive,” Zwart tells WebMD. “We were also surprised that the impact of these negative lifestyle factors seemed to add up.”

The research included almost 6,000 students in Norway between the ages of 13 and 18 interviewed about their recent headache history. They also were asked if they smoked and how much they exercised.

Roughly one in five teens (19%) said they were smokers, 16% were overweight, and 31% reported exercising less than twice a week.

Overall, about a third of the girls (36%) and one-fifth of the boys (21%) reported having recurrent headaches within the past year.

More than half (55%) of the overweight, sedentary teens who smoked reported recent frequent headaches, compared to one in four teens with none of these lifestyle factors.

Compared to normal-weight, active, nonsmoking teens, overweight teens, and teens who smoked were 40% and 50%, respectively, more likely to have frequent headaches. Exercising less than twice a week was associated with a 20% increase in the likelihood of frequent headaches.

It is not clear from the research if the negative lifestyle factors caused the frequent headaches or if they act more as triggers in already vulnerable teens.

Start of School Year Is a Vulnerable Time

Adolescent headache specialist Andrew D. Hershey, MD, PhD, tells WebMD that most children and teens with migraines and other severe, chronic headaches are genetically predisposed to have them.

Hershey directs the headache center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

“Children with migraines tend to have a parent who has had them,” he says. “Environmental influences come into play by causing headaches to be expressed more frequently.”

Hershey’s own research, published last year, found that overweight children who suffered from frequent headaches had fewer headaches after losing weight.

webmd.com

Aug. 18, 2010 — Teens are more likely to have chronic headaches or migraines when they are overweight, smoke cigarettes, or get little or no exercise, new research shows.

Teenagers in the study with all three negative lifestyle factors had a more than threefold greater likelihood of having frequent, severe headaches than normal-weight, active teens who did not smoke.

Headaches are a common complaint among teenagers, with 5% of teenage boys and almost 8% of teenage girls in one nationwide study reporting frequent migraines. In another study of older teens in Poland, 28% reported having had a migraine headache.

While obesity, smoking, and other lifestyle factors have been shown to influence the frequency and severity of chronic headaches in adults, the new study, published in the journal Neurology, is among the first to explore the relationship in teenagers.

Slideshow: Surprising Headache Triggers

Obesity, Smoking, and Headaches

The study is the first to examine the individual impact of specific negative lifestyle factors like obesity and smoking, says study researcher John-Anker Zwart, MD, PhD, of the University of Oslo.

“We were surprised by how many teenagers with headaches smoked or were overweight or physically inactive,” Zwart tells WebMD. “We were also surprised that the impact of these negative lifestyle factors seemed to add up.”

The research included almost 6,000 students in Norway between the ages of 13 and 18 interviewed about their recent headache history. They also were asked if they smoked and how much they exercised.

Roughly one in five teens (19%) said they were smokers, 16% were overweight, and 31% reported exercising less than twice a week.

Overall, about a third of the girls (36%) and one-fifth of the boys (21%) reported having recurrent headaches within the past year.

More than half (55%) of the overweight, sedentary teens who smoked reported recent frequent headaches, compared to one in four teens with none of these lifestyle factors.

Compared to normal-weight, active, nonsmoking teens, overweight teens, and teens who smoked were 40% and 50%, respectively, more likely to have frequent headaches. Exercising less than twice a week was associated with a 20% increase in the likelihood of frequent headaches.

It is not clear from the research if the negative lifestyle factors caused the frequent headaches or if they act more as triggers in already vulnerable teens.

Start of School Year Is a Vulnerable Time

Adolescent headache specialist Andrew D. Hershey, MD, PhD, tells WebMD that most children and teens with migraines and other severe, chronic headaches are genetically predisposed to have them.

Hershey directs the headache center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

“Children with migraines tend to have a parent who has had them,” he says. “Environmental influences come into play by causing headaches to be expressed more frequently.”

Hershey’s own research, published last year, found that overweight children who suffered from frequent headaches had fewer headaches after losing weight.

webmd.com

If there’s one thing you can say for teenagers, it’s that they know how to push their parents’ buttons. Instinctively, it seems, they come with an arsenal of tools to get what they want, avoid getting into trouble, or cause their parents to blow a fuse out of frustration… for the pure enjoyment of it.

The teen years can be quite challenging for kids and parents alike. We talked with experts to learn about the six most common ways teenagers play their parents, why they do it, and what moms and dads can do to counteract the manipulation and keep the peace.

Understand the Motivation

Kids manipulate their parents for a number of reasons: to garner love and attention, to cover their butts, to get what they want, and to feel powerful, says David Swanson, PsyD, a child and family psychologist practicing in Los Angeles and the author of HELP-My Kid is Driving Me Crazy, The 17 Ways Kids Manipulate Their Parents and What You Can Do About It. It’s in a teen’s nature to figure out the consequences of their actions and to try different things to see what kind of response they get.

Oh, and there’s one more reason: It works! Although often unaware of it, parents frequently set up reinforcements that don’t work for them, inviting behaviors that fuel many teen/parent conflicts, says Joshua Klapow, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the School of Public Health at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

1. Steamrolling

Perhaps the most common form of manipulation teenagers employ is steam rolling. Steam rolling can most simply be defined as: Can I? Can I? Can I? Can I? How about now? It’s the never- ending, repeat request intended (even if unconsciously) to wear a parent down in order for a teen to get what she or he wants.

Fight fire with fire, suggests Stacy Kaiser, psychotherapist, author of How to Be a Grown Up: The Ten Secret Skills Everyone Needs to Know, and mother of two teenage daughters.

“Think about what your bottom line is and develop a ‘broken record’ sentence,” Kaiser says. If your teen wants to hang out in the mall with friends, for example, but he hasn’t yet finished his homework, your mantra is simply, “You must do your homework before you go to the mall.” No further discussion is necessary (or advised).

Keep replying with the same sentence and become a broken record. That makes it much more difficult for your teen to knock you off your feet, Kaiser says.

Swanson also offers the “watch method.” Here’s the script: “When I give you your answer if you keep asking me, I’m going to let you know that you’re steamrolling me and if you keep going, I’m going to look at my watch. For every minute you continue to do it after I told you you’re steamrolling, it’s going to be two minutes of earlier bed or video time chipped away.”

Once you’ve explained the ground rules, merely take a 10 second glance at your watch. Your teen will know you mean business. “That’s when the steamrolling stops working against you and starts working against your child,” Swanson says.

webmd.com

Aug. 17, 2010 — Hearing loss in teens has gone up, with one in five U.S. adolescents showing some degree of hearing loss in 2005-2006, according to a new study.

Researchers compared hearing loss evaluated in two national surveys, one conducted in 1988-1994 and the other in 2005-2006. ”In the initial assessment back in the early ’90’s, about 15% [of teens] had any hearing loss,” says researcher Gary C. Curhan MD, ScD, associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health.

”More recently, it was 19%,” he says.

”On a relative basis, that’s about 30% higher,” he tells WebMD. “Previously, one in seven children would have been found to have hearing loss. Now it’s one of five.”

The majority of the hearing loss found was slight, Curhan and his colleagues found. But, Curhan says, “any hearing loss is bad.”

The study is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Updating Data on Teen Hearing Loss

Curhan and his colleagues compared data from two surveys: the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) and NHANES 2005-2006.

The earlier survey included data from 2,928 participants; the second had data from 1,771 participants, all ages 12 to 19.

The earlier survey didn’t include data on exposure to loud noise for five or more hours a week, but the later study did. In the 2005-2006 survey, 29% of respondents said they were exposed to such noise. But the researchers did not find a significant link between that and hearing loss.

Children from families below the federal poverty level did have a higher risk of hearing loss — they were 1.6 times more likely than children from families above the poverty threshold to have hearing loss. While about 23% of children from the poorer families had hearing loss, about 18% of those in families above the poverty threshold did.

High-frequency hearing loss, which often occurs from noise exposure, was higher in the second survey than the first, the researchers found.

Even slight hearing loss in school-aged children can create a need for speech therapy and other special help, the researchers say. Mild loss can interfere with speech and language development, school performance, and impair social and emotional development.

Explaining Hearing Loss in Teens

The analysis didn’t go into the reasons for the loss, Curhan says. They had speculated that greater use of vaccines (such as vaccination against Streptococcus pneumonia, a bacteriumthat can causeinfections leading to hearing loss) would lead to a reduction in hearing loss in teens.

But it did not.

The survey data didn’t include data on the teen’s use of personal listening devices. “We know very loud noises for long periods of time are harmful,” Curhan says. Yet to give more specific guidelines for teen music listening is not possible, he says.

children.webmd.com

Aug. 17, 2010 — Despite concerns that an “only” child may be spoiled by his or her parents, new research suggests that teenagers without siblings don’t seem to be disadvantaged in the development of social skills.

Researchers at Ohio State University, who examined interview data on more than 13,000 middle and high school kids, say they found that those without siblings were chosen as friends by their classmates as often as those with brothers and sisters.

“I don’t think anyone has to be concerned that if you don’t have siblings, you won’t learn the social skills you need to get along with other students in high school,” Donna Bobbitt-Zeher, PhD, co-researcher of the study and assistant professor of sociology at Ohio State’s Marion campus, says in a news release.

She says concerns that a lack of siblings could crimp the ability of young people to make friends have increased in recent years but appear to be unfounded.

Bobbitt-Zeher and Douglas Downey, PhD, a sociology professor at Ohio State’s Columbus campus, examined data from the National Study of Adolescent Health, which included information from interviews with 13,466 adolescents in seventh through 12th grades at more than 100 schools during the 1994-1995 academic year.

Each youngster was given a roster of all students in his or her school, and asked to identify up to five male and five female friends.

Students in the study were nominated as a friend by an average of five other students. And no important differences were found in “friend” nominations of youths with or without siblings.

Researchers say their findings showed that:

The number of siblings a teen had didn’t matter when it came to being identified as a friend.Neither did it matter whether those siblings were brothers, sisters, or some combination, or if they were step-siblings or adopted siblings.

“In every combination we tested, siblings had no impact on how popular a student was among peers,” Bobbitt-Zeher says.

children.webmd.com

Aug. 10, 2010 — Parents whose teenagers spend a lot of time watching TV or using computers are worried that their youngsters’ tube and digital time may interfere with important parent-child conversations, new research indicates.

Partnership for a Drug-Free America cites a survey that finds that 38% of parents are concerned that too much TV viewing by their children may make it harder to talk to them, 37% fret that their teens’ time on computers may interfere with communication, and 33% say video games get in the way of serious conversations.

The parents say such activities make it harder for them to talk to their teens about alcohol and drug use and other risky behaviors.

The survey of more than 1,200 parents also indicates that more than 25% are worried about newer forms of media. For example:

27% of parents fretted that cell phone texting might interfere with good communication.25% pointed to Facebook as a problem.19% said Twitter hinders effective communication.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America campaign cites a Kaiser Family Foundation survey of 2,000 teens released earlier this year that found that young people 8-18 years old spend nearly eight hours a day, or 53 hours weekly, “consuming” entertainment media.

That research also indicated that the more time teens spend on TV or other media, the less happy they tend to be, and the more their grades tend to suffer.

It found that:

47% of heavy media users reported they usually got fair to poor grades, C’s or lower.23% of light media users indicated to surveyors they earned fair to poor grades.

Media Consumption Among Teens

The Kaiser survey notes that there has been a drastic increase in media consumption among teens and that it’s been driven in large part by easy access to mobile devices such as cell phones and iPod media players.

Among teens and kids, cell phone ownership has increased from 39% in 2004 to 66% in 2009. Ownership of iPods jumped from 18% to 76% over the same time period. About 20% of children’s media consumption comes from mobile devices, and as youths get older, they use such equipment even more.

“These new findings present a unique opportunity for parents to play a more active role in what their kids are watching, monitor how they are spending their time online, and remain aware of the impact all of this media consumption is having on their impressionable teens,” says Steve Pasierb, president of Partnership for a Drug-Free America. “We know that kids today are bombarded with pro-drug and drinking messages via everything from song lyrics, movies, and video games to social networking sites.”

He says in a news release that videos of children abusing cough medicine and other common household products in an attempt to get high are easily accessible online, making it more important than ever for parents to break through the new media cacophony to make their voices heard.

Partnership for a Drug-Free American says parents should talk often with their kids about the dangers of drugs and alcohol use, and the organization has created a web site, TimeToTalk.org, offering parents a new way to start a dialogue with youngsters about avoiding risky behaviors.

The organization says parents can use email, cell phones, and even texting to begin such conversations with teens.

webmd.com