Typically, snoring in adults rouses concerns of sleep issues such as apnea, a condition in which breathing temporarily pauses multiple times over the course of a night. But new research suggests that when it happens in kids, it can signal trouble, too.

A study of 10,000 preteens found that those who snored three or more times a week were also associated with behavioral issues, such as inattention, hyperactivity and aggression. There were physiological differences as well: Brain scans showed regular youthful snorers had thinner gray matter, the tissue that contains most of the brain's neurons.

Researchers didn't offer possible reasons for the correlations but suggested that if a parent hears a child snoring more than twice a week, they should bring them to a doctor for an evaluation, and perhaps look at remedies like removing tonsils or adenoids to improve breathing.

Full Head of Scream

We tend to think of screaming in terms of fear or aggression — a very primal way to communicate two very basic emotions. But there are themes to screams. Researchers asked 12 people to scream in various ways, slowing, intermittently, with alarm and without. Then they asked 23 people to listen to the different screams while inside a functional MRI machine.

Turns out our screams convey more than we think. Or more precisely, we think more about screams than we realize. Nonalarming yelps and hoots prompted greater frontal brain activity in the listeners, suggesting they were deriving more information from them than might have seemed obvious to the ears.

Body of Knowledge

Laughing 100 times is equivalent to 15 minutes of exercise on a stationary bike.

Get Me That. Stat!

For the sixth year in a row, cases of sexually transmitted disease (gonorrhea, syphilis, chlamydia) have risen: 2.5 million cases in 2019. The number of newborns with congenital syphilis nearly quadrupled from 2015 to 2019.

As with many medical issues, unequal access to resources and care created racial and ethnic disparities in the data. Youth, gay or bisexual men were at greatest risk.

Mark Your Calendar

June is awareness month for cataracts, migraines, scoliosis, post-traumatic stress syndrome and both Alzheimer's disease and the brain. Keep that in mind.

Counts

52: Percentage of female physicians in study who reported burnout.

47.6: Percentage of male physicians reporting burnout.

Source: JAMA

Doc Talk

Achlorydria: a condition in which the stomach produces little or no acid, which can affect digestion, cause pain and keep the body from absorbing vitamins and nutrients.

Phobia of the Week

Apotemnophobia: fear of people with amputations.

Food for Thought

University of Queensland (Australia) nutritionists have linked certain nutrients in foods, such as tryptophan, folic acid, omega-3 and zinc, to mood. More specifically, when consumed they improve our mental well-being.

Some of their recommended dietary choices: oysters, crab, elk and spinach.

Observation

"To be stupid, selfish and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost." — French novelist Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)

Medical History

This week in 1906, pathologist Howard T. Ricketts discovered that Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever was caused by an unusual microbe spread by ticks. Its symptoms are similar to typhus, except the rash starts at the extremities and moves to the trunk. Seventy percent of spotted fever cases require hospitalization; the mortality rate is approximately 7% if untreated.

Ig Nobel Apprised

The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate achievements that make people laugh, then think. A look at real science that's hard to take seriously and even harder to ignore.

In 1993, the Ig Nobel Prize in medicine went to a trio of physicians for their painstaking research and scientific paper "Acute Management of the Zipper-Entrapped Penis."

Self-exam

Match the following types of plastic surgery with the part(s) of the body involved.

1. Otoplasty

2. Blepharoplasty

3. Rhytidectomy

4. Brachioplasty

5. Mentoplasty

a) Arm lift surgery

b) Chin surgery

c) Facelift surgery

d) Ear surgery

e) Eyelid surgery

Answers: 1.d; 2.e; 3.c; 4.a; 5.b.

Curtain Calls

Valentinian 1, a Roman emperor, died in the year 375 from a stroke caused by yelling in great anger at foreign envoys.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Mylene2401 at Pixabay