HEALTH NOTES

BREASTFEEDING MUMS AFFECTED BY LOCKDOWN, SAYS STUDY

ONE in three mums stopped breastfeeding during lockdown after finding themselves left with no face-to-face support.

The Swansea University study found some health visitors were redeployed from March to help the NHS in its coronavirus fight. House visits were stopped as the UK went into lockdown and “vital” breastfeeding support groups closed.

CUTTING AIR POLLUTION NEAR SCHOOLS CAN IMPROVE MEMORY

AIR pollution harms children’s working memory and ability to learn, a study for the Clean Air Day charity reveals.

Researchers at the University of Manchester found that decreasing air pollution in and around schools by a fifth can improve a child’s working memory over the course of a year by 6% – gaining four weeks’ learning time.

A total of 8,549 UK schools, colleges and nurseries are in places with pollution levels that are above WHO health limits.

OLED-AGE BELIEFS ARE JUST OLD-FASHIONED, SAYS RESEARCH

RESEARCH has found that people between the ages of 75 and 80 learn and understand better, and are more physically capable, than people of their age were in the 1990s.

This suggests that our perception of old age may be outdated.

A Finnish study measured the walking speed, muscle strength, reaction speed, verbal skills and memory of people in the age group in the 1990s and now.

The more recent group outperformed the earlier one in all categories – which was put down to better education and being more physically active.