Did I Catch the Flab Virus?

Sometimes I have days where I run into related items from all my sources of information. Today was one of those days.

I made Penny an quilter’s ironing board that fits over the regular ironing board. It will be easier now for her to press her quilts.

I’ve been listening to podcasts that I subscribe to while I do my chores. Today I listened to the 60-Minutes program that discussed sleep. It seems that lack of sufficient sleep can cause a number of problems from psychological to physical and the effect is immediate. Scientists are seeing test results indicating lack of sleep can cause weight gain, increased risk of Type II Diabetes, and psychological behavior mimicking some mental disorders. It’s more important than you may think to get your sleep. Karen—take those naps whenever you can! I got my Popular Science magazine today and there was an article explaining that sleep deprivation interferes with appetite-regulating hormones and drives us to eat more.

Another article titled “We all came down with a bad case of fat” discusses several viruses lurking in our food may spread obesity by infiltrating adult stem cells and transforming them to fat cells. In other words, love handles are contagious! And we thought it was only genetics and lack of will power.

In this week’s Newsweek there is an article claiming that stress can be good for you. All we need to do is learn to control it.

The article also gave evidence that mild to moderate stress in a woman’s life may be good for fetal development. They quote a study that showed that women under moderate stress in mid-to-late pregnancy wound up with toddlers that were developmentally advanced, scoring highly on language and cognitive tests. A follow-up study showed 2-week old babies of moderately stressed mothers showed evidence of faster nerve transmission—and possibly more mature brain development.

Maybe I shouldn’t pick on Penny so much for getting stressed. It may be more beneficial for her than harmful.