If the climate continues warming as predicted, spruce beetle outbreaks in the Rocky Mountains could become more frequent, a new multi-year study led by Colorado State University finds.

Parents who find a sex-based text on their teenager’s phone should be on the lookout for other problems in their child’s life, a new evidence review suggests.

Teens who share sexually explicit images are much more likely to be involved in other troubling activities, including unsafe sex, alcohol and drugs.

Troubling findings

“The kids who are sexting are engaging in a lot of other risky behaviours,” said senior researcher Sheri Madigan, a child development expert from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.

“We found that youths who were sexting were approximately four times more likely to be also engaging in sexual intercourse, five times more likely to have multiple sexual partners, and half as likely to be using contraception,” she continued.

Also, sexting teens were:

• Twice as likely to have symptoms of depression and anxiety.
• Two and a half times more likely to be smoking or engaging in delinquent behaviours like stealing or vandalism.
• More than three times as likely to be using alcohol or drugs.

But the findings are particularly troubling in light of a 2018 study led by Madigan that found one out of four teens is receiving sexts, and one out of seven is sending them.

Other risky behaviours

Results from the new review line up with what is already known about teens and sexting, said Sameer Hinduja, co-director of the Cyberbullying Research Center at Florida Atlantic University.

“Many risky behaviours among youth tend to occur in a constellation,” he said. “If a teen experiments with one risky behaviour, that teen typically has experience with other risky behaviours.”

For this study, Madigan and her colleagues collected and combined data from 23 previous studies on sexting, involving nearly 42 000 teenagers.

They found significant links between sexting and sexual activity, risky sexual behaviour, symptoms of mood disorders, drug and alcohol use, smoking and delinquency.

Further, they found that associations between sexting and either sexual behaviour or mood disorders were stronger in younger adolescents, compared to those in their later teens.

It’s not clear whether sexting leads to these behaviours, or whether kids inclined to take risks are also more likely to sext, the researchers added. They noted the findings could not prove causation; it only showed an association.

What parents should do

It’s very possible that sexting is a gateway that could lead to more experimentation with sex, Madigan said.

“I think sometimes sexting is an initiation into greater sexual behaviour,” she said. “Sometimes kids use sexting as a starting point. People have called it the modern-day version of flirting.”

But other research also has found that when teens are sexting within the confines of a committed relationship, they are not more likely to be engaging in substance abuse and other risk-taking activities, Madigan added.

Those associations are more often found in “youth who are sexting as a method of flirting or sexting in a more casual way”, she said.

So what should parents do?

Hazing and cyberbullying expert Susan Lipkins said the “pat answer” is to remind children that anything they share over the internet is out of their control and could be used against them.

Kids will do what they want

Parents should start teaching their kids about privacy and consent as early as possible, even before they have a phone, she and Madigan advised.

Such conversations should include discussion of “what-if” scenarios, Madigan said: What if someone sends you a photo? What if you’re asked to send a nude of yourself? What if someone tries to coerce you into sexting? What if you share a nude with a boyfriend or girlfriend and then you break up?

“But the truth is, the kids will learn all that, they will memorise it and repeat it back to you, and then they will do whatever they want,” said Lipkins, a psychologist in Port Washington, New York.

The best thing adults can do is create a system for reporting sexts and other cyberbullying behaviour, one that is anonymous and allows for verification of complaints, she said.

Otherwise, it’s really in the hands of the teens themselves, she added.

“The kids themselves have to decide they don’t want to participate,” Lipkins said. “‘We’re not going to pass that photo along. No, I don’t want it on my device. No, I don’t want to get in trouble for having it. No, it is inappropriate, it is disrespectful to whomever, and I’m not going to participate in this behaviour.’ When they can say that and protect each other and themselves, that’s when it’s going to end.”

The new report was published in JAMA Pediatrics.

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Non-precious metal nanoparticles could one day replace expensive catalysts for hydrogen production. However, it is often difficult to determine what reaction rates they can achieve, especially when it comes to oxide particles. This is because the particles must be attached to the electrode using a binder and conductive additives, which distort the results. With the aid of electrochemical analyses of individual particles, researchers have now succeeded in determining the activity and substance conversion of nanocatalysts made from cobalt iron oxide — without any binders. The team led by Professor Kristina Tschulik from Ruhr-Universität Bochum reports together with colleagues from the University of Duisburg-Essen and from Dresden in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, published online on 30 May 2019.

Popcorn, with its ample dietary fibre and typically low calorie count, makes it easy to understand why many people think a giant bucket at the movie theatre qualifies as a healthy snack.

But be careful before you start scooping handfuls into your mouth as the opening credits roll; not all popcorn is created equal.

When it’s air-popped and lightly seasoned, popcorn is an efficiently healthy snack. That’s because it is a whole grain, and high-fibre whole grains have been linked to a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes, some cancers and other health problems.

Federal dietary guidelines say half of all grains consumed should be whole grains, and popcorn packs more fibre per serving than whole-wheat bread.

“When prepared well, popcorn actually is a pretty good snack,” said Maya Vadiveloo, an assistant professor in the department of nutrition and food sciences at the University of Rhode Island.

“It’s stable. It’s inexpensive. It’s fairly tasty. For people who might be struggling to eat adequate fruits or vegetables or other whole grains, it’s a low-risk snack to start.

“Popcorn at the movies is very different than popcorn made at home.”

A tub of movie theatre popcorn can contain up to 1 090 calories and 2 650 milligrams of sodium.

“Even a small movie theatre popcorn has significant calories and is very high in salt,” Vadiveloo said. “Sodium is one of the leading risk factors for hypertension and stroke in general, so it’s something we do care about from a perspective of heart disease.”

‘Popcorn lung’

Some theatre chains pop their popcorn in canola oil. Vadiveloo said popcorn made with measured amounts of heart-healthy oils such as canola or olive oil can still be healthy. But, she said, it’s better to have control over how the snack is prepared from the start.

The same logic goes for popcorn coated in sugar, such as caramel corn, she said.

“Air-popped would be a good way to prepare popcorn because it gives you some control over the seasonings that you add afterward – how much salt, or how much oil or butter,” Vadiveloo said.

Microwave popcorn may have posed an entirely different set of health problems in the past, but many of the chemicals involved have been removed in recent years.

One such chemical, diacetyl, has been linked to a disease called popcorn lung, which causes shortness of breath and wheezing. Diacetyl, which gives some microwave popcorn its buttery taste, is found in cheese, butter, yogurt and wine, and it’s not harmful if swallowed; the danger comes when it is inhaled in large amounts.

High satiety

In addition to fibre, popcorn also is a good source of polyphenols, which are antioxidants that have been linked to better blood circulation and digestive health, as well as a potentially lower risk of certain cancers.

Another health benefit of popcorn is its high satiety. Because of popcorn’s high fibre content, its low calorie count and its low energy density, popcorn is considered to be a food that can aid in weight loss.

For example, popcorn has been shown to make people feel fuller than a similar calorie amount of potato chips.

“I could give you 200 calories of a milkshake, and that might be 5 (147.8ml) or 6 (177.4ml) ounces,” Vadiveloo said. “Your body isn’t going to recognise you’ve had 200 calories and feel satisfied.

But if you eat 200 calories of fruits and vegetables, which are high in fibre and water, you’re going to have to eat quite a large portion size to get to 200 calories. The same goes for popcorn.”

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The 11-year-old is thought to be in 15% of spinal muscular atrophy patients who do not qualify.

Plans have been held up after an EU member state – Portugal – intervened.

Jane The Virgin star Gina Rodriguez is getting real about her mental health struggles. Two years ago, the actress took to Instagram to open up about her anxiety—and once again, she’s bringing awareness to mental illnesses. Last week, the 34-year-old spoke at the Kennedy Forum, an annual mental health panel, about her uphill battle with anxiety and depression. 

“There was a point where I couldn’t…push through every single time anymore, and I’m one of those human beings…where I’m like, I’ll handle it later. I’ll deal with it later. I’ll figure it out later. I just have to do this now. All the while you’re dealing with your silent little dragon in your head,” she told NBC’s Kate Snow during the forum. “And it came to a point, and this season was the first season where I had to stop production. I had a really tumultuous season, and I was unafraid for the first time to be like, ‘I can’t.’” 

RELATED: 15 Inspiring Things Celebrities Have Said About Dealing With Anxiety

Rodriguez also spoke about her battle with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system attacks the thyroid gland and often includes depression as a symptom. During the forum she revealed how her depression has impacted her throughout most of her adult life. 

"I think I started dealing with depression around 16," she said at the forum. "I started dealing with the idea of—that same concept that I think your husband was talking about—(that) everything is going to be better when I'm gone. Life will be easier; all the woes will be away, all the problems … Then I wouldn't have to fail or succeed, right? Then all this surmounting pressure would go away. It would just go away."

RELATED: What Gina Rodriguez’s Thyroid Disorder Taught Her About Loving Her Body

Rodriguez explained that she wanted to be a part of the forum because she wants to set a positive influence for young girls who might be struggling with their own mental health issues. 

"It has to be a part of the conversations I have with these young girls,” she explained. “I can't just tell them to go out and make their dreams come true and then to ignore everything else.”

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As innocent as they look sitting on your bathroom counter, cotton swabs can actually do more damage than you realize. A man in the U.K. developed a potentially life-threatening infection in his skull after the tip of a cotton swab got stuck inside his ear without him realizing.

A report published in the BMJ tells us the 31-year-old man was rushed to the emergency room after having a seizure and collapsing. The man said in the 10 days leading up to the seizure, his left ear was in pain and was giving off discharge. He also experienced headaches on the left side of his head that were so painful they made him vomit. As things got worse, he even started to forget people's names.

But at first, he didn't think much of it. His left ear had caused him pain before, and he had also experienced hearing loss on that side. In fact, he had been treated twice for severe left ear infections within the past few years.

RELATED: This Man's Stuffy Nose Turned Out to Be a Tooth Growing In His Sinuses

When he arrived at the hospital after the seizure, doctors did a CT scan to take a closer look at his brain. They found two abscesses (inflamed areas filled with pus) in the bones of his skull close to his left ear canal. That meant though the infection likely started in the ear canal, it had spread to other areas.

They later found the infection had even spread to the lining of the man's brain, but luckily, it didn't get through the lining to the brain itself.

Doctors then decided to do a minor surgery to inspect the ear canal, and finally, they found the long-lost cotton swab tip. The swab was covered in wax and debris, which led the doctors to believe it had been there for quite a while, likely contributing to the man's ear issues over the years.

After a week in the hospital and two full months of intravenous and oral antibiotics to treat the infection, the man recovered with no long-term complications. However, the doctors did prescribe him one thing for life: to never use cotton swabs inside his ears again.

RELATED: 5 Mistakes You're Making Cleaning Your Ears

Facebook’s terms of service explain that the social media giant will censor things such as “imagery of violence,” “videos that show acts of torture,” and “images of explicit sexual intercourse.” 

So last week, when Facebook disabled the page Behind The Scars, where photographer Sophie Mayanne shared artistic photos of people’s scars and the powerful stories behind them, the company inadvertently sent a message: that the marks life inevitably leaves on the human body, those that society tries to tell us are “imperfections,” fall into the same category as the off-limit items mentioned above. They deserve to be censored. 

“Facebook is basically saying that these bodies shouldn’t be seen,” Mayanne tells Health. “For many of the people who’ve been photographed, being in those images was the first time they fully felt comfortable showing their scars. So to then have that removed, it’s taking away that moment where they felt proud, they felt empowered.” 

RELATED: The Powerful Reason This Breast Cancer Survivor Is Putting Her Mastectomy Scars on Full Display

Last Wednesday, when Mayanne woke up to notifications that both her personal account and the Behind The Scars account had been disabled, she thought it was a mistake. “It was completely out of the blue,” she says. “There was no warning, and I’ve never had any issues on Facebook before.” But suddenly, her accounts were considered “ineligible to use the platform,” according to the notification she received. 

Mayanne feels that all of her posts follow Facebook’s guidelines. She only posts nudity in cases of things like mastectomy scars, and the guidelines specifically say Facebook will “make allowances” for “photos of post-mastectomy scarring.” They also claim to make allowances for content being posted to “raise awareness about a cause, or for educational or medical reasons.” There’s no question that Behind The Scars is worthy of that allowance. 

RELATED: This Woman Isn't Afraid to Show Off Her Scars From Having 15 Surgeries

Mayanne photographed her first 10 subjects for Behind The Scars in 2017. At the time, she had no idea that in just two short years, she would have photographed more than 450 people for the project. She also had no idea that she would collaborate with brands like Girlgaze, Dove, and Mothercare UK or be asked to give a TEDx talk at a university in Amsterdam. 

The project has grown incredibly fast, and ironically, Mayanne says much of that growth has been made possible by social media platforms like Facebook. She used her account to do things like post about open casting calls and message with people who were interested in learning more about the project, but mostly, she used it to help anyone who came across her art see that they weren’t alone. 

RELATED: Women Are Sharing Unedited Belly Scar Photos to Show a Side of Endometriosis You Don't Usually See

Those who have been featured in the project have had scars from being severely burnt, engaging in self harm, and undergoing surgeries such as mastectomies, amputations, emergency cesarean sections, and more. “Many of the people I photograph say they want to participate because they never saw a photograph of someone who looked like them growing up,” Mayanne says. 

When asked to describe Behind The Scars in her own words, she says, “It’s an honest representation of people with scars of all shapes and sizes. It increases representation. It increases awareness." She adds, “The images are designed so that you see the person as well as the scar because there is a person behind every scar. There’s a story behind every scar.”

Behind The Scars has undoubtedly propelled the conversation around body acceptance forward, but, as Facebook has made oh-so clear, there’s still a lot of work to be done. That’s not news to Mayanne, though. She makes that clear when she asks, “You know that feeling that you’ve only just scratched the surface?”

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