Your health: Binge-watching tough on your eyes
Binge-watching tough on your eyes
Have you ever spent an entire day watching "House of Cards" or "Orange is the New Black"?
Such binge watching can take a toll on your eyes, ABC reports.
"Computer screens emit light rays that are out of the visual spectrum that can be very harmful, from a comfort and health standpoint," said optometrist Dr. Melanie Vardeman.
Many binge watchers suffer from dry eyes, headaches and blurred vision. Vardeman said watching a computer screen for hours may be fun now, but can be harmful in the future.
"It can cause problems like early cataracts as well as macular degeneration," Vardeman said.
Optometrists have something that might help - blue blockers. You put them on and they protect you from the harmful blue light rays.
"We would like to see everybody wearing them, everyone from adults and really especially children," Vardeman said.
Decline in dementia offers 'cautious hope'
A report in a recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine offered a few words of encouragement concerning dementia rates.
Researchers from a long-standing Framingham study found that the rate of dementia has declined over the course of three decades.
Framingham researchers had been studying more than 5,000 men and women since 1975. The participants had physical exams, including tests for dementia every five years.
The researchers determined that the five-year rate of dementia was 3.6 percent between 1982 and 1986; 2.8 percent between 1991 and 1996; 2.2 percent between 1998 and 2003; and 2.0 percent between 2009 and 2013. Moreover, the average age when dementia was diagnosed increased from 80 to 85 over the 30 years.
Americans eat a lot of processed food
More than half of all calories consumed in the U.S. come from "ultra-processed" foods, which can contribute to serious health complications like obesity and heart disease, new research finds.
Ultra-processed foods are products that contain several manufactured ingredients that are not generally used when cooking from scratch, CBS reports.
Some examples of ultra-processed foods include soft drinks; sweet or savory packaged snacks; packaged baked goods; chicken or fish nuggets and other reconstituted meat products, and instant noodles and soups.