Small Kids Have Better Memories Than Parents

Next time, maybe you'll believe your kid. Small children apparently have better memories than their parents, researchers say.

They found a 5-year-old could beat most adults on a recognition memory test, at least under specific conditions. And the reason is that adults know too much.

"It's one case where knowledge can actually decrease memory accuracy," said Vladimir Sloutsky, director of the Center for Cognitive Science at Ohio State University, who led the study.

For their study, researchers showed 77 young children and 71 college students pictures of cats, bears and birds. The study was designed to make the volunteers look at the pictures but they did not know what was being tested.

Writing in the Journal of Psychological Science, the researchers said the children, with an average age of 5, were accurate 31 percent of the time in identifying pictures of animals they had seen earlier, while the adults were accurate only 7 percent of the time. (Reuters)

Support Kevin's Ride

One of my clients, Kevin O' Connell, is riding in the 2006 LifeCycle. He's a very inspirational guy, with a lot of enthusiasm and zeal for life. I've pledged toward his goal and I hope you will support him in this worthy effort.

As someone who's done the 575-mile ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, I can tell you that it's a grueling journey of love. There's really no way to describe the community of kindness that forms along the way. It is a magical, haunting and profound experience.

Early Warning Signs for Childhood Obesity

Scientists have drawn up a check-list of early warning signs of child obesity, among them too much television and not enough sleep.

More than eight hours' TV a week or less than 10-1/2 hours' sleep a night for a three-year-old increase the risk of piling on the pounds, they say.

"Eight factors in early life are associated with an increased risk of obesity in childhood," said Dr John Reilly, an expert on child obesity at the University of Glasgow. "There are certain factors, very early on, which can set you on a particular path in life to becoming obese," he added in an interview.

The others are: high birth weight; early size; rapid weight gain; quick growth in years one and two; early body fat; and having obese parents.

One in Four Americans Gets No Exercise

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A quarter of all Americans get virtually no exercise, raising their risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer, a government report said.

Only 19 percent get a "high" level of physical activity at work or in their free time, the survey by the National Center for Health Statistics found.

The report, based on 32,000 interviews conducted in 2000, found blacks and Hispanics were less likely to exercise than whites, with just 15 percent reporting they get a high level of physical activity.

Education, income and marital status all affect whether someone exercises.

"About one in four adults with an advanced degree engage in a high level of overall physical activity, compared to one in seven of those with less than a high school diploma," the NCHS said in a statement.

"Adults with incomes below the poverty level are three times as likely to be physically inactive as adults in the highest income group."

Married women are more likely to exercise than women who have not married and men are more likely to exercise than women. The southern United States has the highest percentage of couch potatoes.