Research Ties Sugary Drinks to Short Lifespan
Drinking too many sugary beverages—such as soda, noncarbonated fruit punch, and lemonade—is associated with a slight increase in risk for early death, according to a study published earlier this year in the American Heart Association’s journal, Circulation.
Researchers looked at data from two health studies that started way back in the 1980s and included more than 118,000 people, including more than 36,000 deaths. When looking at those deaths, researchers accounted for health, behavioral, and dietary characteristics but still found that the more sugary drinks a person consumed, the higher their risk for death.
Adults who consumed more than two sugar-sweetened beverages per day had a 21 percent higher risk of death than adults who had just one sugary drink a month. Ideally, those who drink sugar-sweetened drinks should replace those beverages with water, though researchers say that replacing them with diet drinks can be a good first step to cut back on consumption.
Social Media Could Be the Culprit in Teen Depression
Over the past seven to 10 years, there’s been a significant rise in major depression in 12- to 25-year-olds in the United States, and it might be linked to the amount of time spent on social media and smartphones.
The team of researchers reviewed information from more than 600,000 adolescents and adults who participated in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, specifically seeking out trends in both mood disorders and behaviors related to suicide. They found that those in the pre-teen to mid-20s age set reported more incidences of major depression, while the rates for those age 26 or older either stayed the same or decreased.
After ruling out substance abuse and financial issues, researchers partially attributed the rise in depression to smartphones and social media, noting that teens and young adults are spending less time sleeping and less time with friends. However, at this point, the research indicates only a correlation—it doesn’t prove a link between social media use and depression in teens.
Three-Fourths of Workplaces Affected by Opioids
Although 75 percent of U.S. employers say that their business has been directly impacted by opioid use, according to a National Safety Council survey, just 17 percent of those employers say they feel prepared to manage the issue.
Employees’ opioid use affects businesses in myriad manners, but the most common ways include absenteeism, or impaired worker performance, and overdoses, arrests, or injuries. NSC also says that, for the first time in U.S. history, an American is more likely to die from an accidental opioid overdose than from a motor vehicle crash.
