Hidden Digital Ads Pushing Children To Eat Fatty Food

Children in Europe are bombarded with hidden digital advertising and marketing promoting fatty, sugary and salty foods that is damaging their health and adding to the region’s obesity problem, World Health Organisation experts said on 4 November. The researchers called for policymakers to do more to protect children from junk food advertising messages on networking sites, games – known as “advergames” – and other social media. Government have given the prevention of childhood obesity the highest political priority, (yet) consistently find that children – most vulnerable group – are exposed to countless numbers of hidden digital marketing techniques promoting foods high in fat, sugar and salt. In the absence of effective regulation of digital media in many countries, children are increasingly exposed to persuasive, individually tailored marketing techniques that parents may underestimate, or be unaware of. Often, parents do not see the same advertisements, nor do they observe the online activities of their children; many therefore underestimate the scale of the problem. About two-third of children who are overweight before puberty will be overweight in early adulthood, and an estimated 25% of school-aged children in Europe are already overweight or obese. Overweight and obese children are likely to stay obese into adulthood and more likely to develop chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease and cancer at a younger age.

To Treat Chronic Pain, Tune Brain To A Certain Frequency

Scientists have shown for the first time that “tuning-in” the brain to a particular frequency can alleviate chronic pain. Chronic pain is often a mixture of recurrent acute pains and chronic persistent pain. About 20-50% of the general population suffers from chronic pain, which lasts for six months. Nerve cells on the brain surface are coordinated with each other at a particular frequency depending on the state of the brain. Alpha waves tuned at 9-12 cycles per second have been recently associated with enabling parts of the brain concerned with higher control to influence other parts of the brain. University of Manchester researchers said that alpha waves from the front of the brain, the forebrain, are associated with placebo analgesia and might be influencing how other parts of the brain process pain. This led to the idea that if we can ‘tune’ the brain to express more alpha waves, we may reduce pain experienced by people with certain conditions. They found that this can be done by providing volunteers with goggles that flash light in the alpha range or by sound stimulation in both ears phased to provide the same stimulus frequency. Both visual and auditory stimulation significantly reduced the intensity of pain induced by laser heat repeatedly shown on the back of the arm.