A new study has found that reducing the amount of sugar children get in the womb and as toddlers can protect them against diabetes and high blood pressure in adulthood.

Published in the journal Science, the research reveals a critical period for healthy nutrition in the first 1,000 days of a baby’s life — from conception to age two.

The study found that cutting sugar intake in this window decreased the type 2 diabetes risk by about 35% and the risk of high blood pressure by roughly 20%. The researchers also discovered a delay in disease onset of four and two years, respectively.

The research team anaylsed data from before and after the end of the United Kingdom’s world war II-era sugar rationing in September 1953.

In January 1940, the UK government began food rationing to ensure fair shares for all during the wartime shortage.

Access to sugar, fats, bacon, meat and cheese was limited. When the rationing of sugar and sweets ended in September 1953, the average adult’s daily sugar consumption nearly doubled almost immediately, from about 40 grams to 80 grams.

Analysing the UK BioBank database of 60,000 people, the scientists compared health in middle age for 38,000 people conceived and born during rationing and 22,000 people conceived soon afterward.

The analysis showed a 30% reduction in the risk of obesity among sugar-rationed babies.

The study by the team at the University of Southern California also found that the risk of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure increased with age. However, it increased faster in those conceived after sugar-rationing ended.

The results showed type 2 diabetes started on average four years later in adult life where there had been sugar-rationing during early childhood, and blood pressure two years later.

There was a 35% reduction in type 2 diabetes for those babies conceived during sugar rationing and a 20% reduction in high blood pressure.

“Sugar rationing created an interesting natural experiment,” said Tadeja Gracner, the study lead author and a senior economist at the Center for Economics and Social Research at the University of Southern California.

“We all want to improve our health and give our children the best start in life, and reducing added sugar early is a powerful step in that direction.

“With better information, environment and the right incentives, parents can more easily reduce sugar exposure, for kids and themselves.”

Also speaking, Keith Godfrey, a professor from the University of Southampton, said: “This is convincing new evidence, providing further support that reducing exposure of the unborn baby and newborn infant to sugar has lasting benefits that include lowering the risk of diabetes and high blood pressure in later adulthood.

“The findings are in keeping with our research showing lower rates of obesity in the children of mothers who eat low glycaemic index foods during pregnancy that are digested and absorbed more slowly, causing a slower rise in blood sugar levels.”

A previous study also suggested that high sugar intake during pregnancy may affect a child’s intelligence.

Many believe that only a particular gender slouches, but we all do.

Slouching is a lazy posture that not only takes a toll on your body, but also on your appearance.

Do you know that with every inch you hold your head forward, you put 10 pounds of pressure on your spine?

Are you also aware that slouching can lead to aches and pains in your back, neck and shoulders?

Constant headache, inability to breathe deeply and tension in the shoulders and back are some of the effects of slouching.

To avoid some of these, here are things to do.

Proper sitting

Be sure your feet are flat on the floor and your knees are level with your hips or slightly higher if possible.

When you sit back in the chair, make sure your spine is supported and your shoulders are relaxed.

Your shoulders should not be rounded or hunched and make sure your computer screen is at eye level so the neck can remain neutral.

When you constantly do that, you are inculcating a good sitting posture.

Standing posture

Your shoulders should be relaxed; neck and head in line with shoulders from the side. Be sure your entire weight is balanced on both feet evenly.

Your abdominal muscles should be slightly activated. Ladies can find it a bit hard but it is the best way to go about it.

Old habit they say, die hard, and correcting a bad posture could be difficult.

When you start practising a proper standing posture, you would feel some pains in the muscles that you’ve not exerted pressure on before, but with time, the muscles would get accustomed to the body movement.

But how does one overcome slouching?

Doorway stretch

This exercise helps you to overcome many years of slouching. All you need to do is stand inside a doorway, bend your right arm 90 degrees and place your forearm against the doorframe.

Place your bent elbow at about shoulder height and rotate your chest left until you get a feeling of a nice stretch in your chest and front shoulder. Hold it for about 25 seconds and equally repeat with the opposite arm.

Shoulder dislocations

This would help those who have developed tight shoulders from slouching.

The exercise requires you to get a broomstick that is about 5 feet in long, hold it with an overhand grip and slowly sway the broomstick in front of you and then over your head until you are sure it hits you in the back area.

Repeat same thing slowly till your shoulder loosens.

Wall angels

To straighten the spine, stand with the back of your head pressed against a wall, bend your knees slightly with your arms raised against the wall and your fingers also pressed against it.

Move your arms up above your head; be sure your fingers, entire back, butt and head are pushing into the wall.

The result will be to arch out but if your backside loses contact with the wall, you aren’t doing it right.

You need to quit slouching as your shoulders turn in when you slouch and causes the chest to sink in as well.

If you maintain a slumped-over position all day long, you’re bound to lose flexibility in your shoulders and chest. If you have lost the flexibility, opt for the exercises and restore the perfect posture your body needs.

The uneven facial texture that results from painful and pus-filled lumps sticking out from beneath the skin as well as the black and red patches that follow are agreeably no one’s delight.

Yet, there are common misconceptions about acne that ends up worsening the plights of those who suffer from the commonplace skin disease.

Without much ado, here are five widespread misconceptions that you should beware of as you edge towards completely ridding yourself of acne and − of course − what you should do instead.

Acne Popping

Contrary to common convictions, those moments of face stroking and pimple popping that is widely thought to aid the eradication of acne lumps might be doing you more harm than good.

Popping your pimples does not get rid of them, but could cause further skin irritation that opens the skin to infections and causes the acne to come back worse.

Acne’s for Teenagers

Most teenagers battle acne only for it to clears up before or in their early 20s. However this is not enough to rule that acne is a skin pathology typical of teenagers.

Hormonal changes sure contribute to the rise in androgen levels which in turn spur a chain of biological changes, which eventually cause acne to develop.

However, the condition can result for a variety of reasons such as stress and bacterial infection, among others.

Diet Causes Acne

Although it is a common belief  that proper diet allows for a smooth skin and overall physical wellness, ‘reliable studies’ have not been able to come up with ‘convincing evidence’ that certain foods cause acne.

Unfortunately there are likely widespread speculations about this but food alone neither cures acne nor prevents it.

Acne’s Cure

This may come as a surprise but there’s actually no proven cure for acne, as even medications widely thought as cures only work relatively for some and not at all for others.

Dermatologists could often prescribe a number of antibiotics and food supplements but these are often meant for ‘reducing the intensity’ of acne−not curing it.

Face Scrubbing

Many believe acne’s caused by dirt sticking to their faces, so they think scrubbing hard while in the bathroom could help alleviate their plight.

Although, skin irritation and clogging; bacteria infections are among conditions that presage acne, they don’t−in themselves−cause it. Scrubbing would, hence, only cause further skin irritation and allow the condition to spread.

What You Should Do Instead

Cleansing your skin twice a day with the right cleansing spirit would help remove oil and bacteria, preventing the acne from forming or further spreading.

It could also be helpful to consult with your dermatologist to ensure you’re approaching your acne the right way, since treatments often come in varying concentrations depending on the intensity of the acne.

You should also consider moisturizing your skin to prevent the body from compensating for its dryness by producing the excess oil that eventually leads to acne.

Owing to the widely established findings that there are no specific treatments for acne, dermatologists often adopt a multidimensional approach to treatment.

For this reason, leveraging on food supplements to provide nutritional support would go a long way in helping with acne mitigation and wound healing.