Daily Dose: Run For Your Life; Happy & Childless; Lap-Bands For Teens? Disabilities Rising

Running Time as a Measure of Heart Health - NYTimes.com "Dr. Berry notes that fitness varies greatly with age and sex, and that mile-time estimates are just easy benchmarks for patients and doctors to begin a discussion about fitness. Over all, he said, a 10-minute mile for a middle-aged man and a 12-minute mile for a woman suggest a good level of fitness. “The principal finding of these studies is that your fitness level when you’re young is highly predictive of heart disease risk 30 to 40 years later,” he said. “If we’re trying to boil this down into practical implications, it’s the speed at which you can run. Heart disease risk increases markedly for every minute longer it takes you to run a mile.” (well.blogs.nytimes.com)

Does having children make you happy? - CNN.com "...one in five American women now ends her childbearing years without having a child, compared with one in ten in the 1970s, according to recently released U.S. Census data." (CNN)

Lap-Band, teens: Allergan seeks FDA approval for Lap-Band surgeries for teens - latimes.com "With sales of its Lap-Band weight-loss device declining, Allergan Inc. has its eyes on a new set of potential customers — overweight teenagers. The Irvine company has asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve Lap-Band surgeries for adolescents as young as 14, and is conducting clinical trials on teenage patients, said Cathy Taylor, a company spokeswoman." (Los Angeles Times)

CDC: Developmental Disabilities Affect 1 In 7 U.S. Kids : Shots - Health Blog : NPR "Fifteen percent of American children have a developmental disability, including autism and ADHD, according to a new report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's an increase of almost 2 percentage points from 1997 to 2008, or almost 2 million kids." (npr.org)

Byrd's eye injury highlights importance of safety glasses - Daily Dose - Boston.com "That said, parents can take precautions to reduce their Little Leaguer's risk of eye injuries. Bating helmets and caged masks for catchers certainly help, but Gardiner says the best protection is a pair of safety glasses. They're shatterproof and made of polycarbonate, and they retail for about $35 to $45.
MLB players don't usually wear them, yet oddly enough they're wiling to sport swim goggles in the locker room to protect their eyes from spraying champagne. (The alcohol can be an irritant.)" (boston.com)