I came across several interesting or odd health news stories today, and thought you should know about them. You know... because Portland hypochondria needs to be inflamed some more.

First up from Nintendo: Later this year Nintendo will be releasing the 3DS, a system that runs glasses-free 3D gaming. This story isn't about doctors who believe young'uns shouldn't be looking at 3D because it will mess up their depth perception. Instead, it's that 3DS is supposed to come with a pedometer. Supposedly, this pedometer will count your steps and give you game coins in exchange, which you can save up and use to buy stuff in games that support the feature.
Sooo... Nintendo just wants you to be healthy. Maybe?
Via.

Breathing through your mouth regularly is bad for your health. Not just when you have a cold.

As Dr. Yosh Jefferson, a New Jersey functional orthodontist, explains, "Mouth-breathing also irritates the tonsils and adenoids, so you have a double whammy where the sinuses are congested, which causes further blockage of the upper airway." Now you really can't breathe out of that nose. What's more, when you take in oxygen through your nose, it passes over the mucous membrane and into the sinuses, which produces nitric oxide, which your body needs for all the smooth muscles, like your heart and your blood vessels. So when you're not breathing through your nose, your blood actually isn't getting all the oxygen it needs to function properly.

Jefferson stated that mouth breathing could cause kids to exhibit ADD type behaviors because their blood isn't getting the proper oxygen. They become tired and irritable. It can also do this:

Apparently, breathing through your mouth can cause your face to elongate and become long and narrow. It also sets your jaw in "weird positions." So... breath through your nose!
Best quote from the article: "It's best to treat them early," Jefferson says. "It drives me crazy that there are so many kids who are mouth breathers and no one is doing anything about it."
Via.

In a study out of Ohio State University and Brookhaven National Laboratory (in Upton, New York) young people prefer compliments over sex and paychecks. As a young person myself, compliments are nice, but I would prefer a paycheck and sex over a compliment any day. Besides, isn't sex inherently a compliment (outside of the whole reproductive thing)?

Below is a quote from Brad Bushman, the lead researcher on the study.

Bushman said the findings, which are published online by the Journal of Personality, suggest that many young people may be a little too focused on pumping up their self-esteem.
"I think that people are looking for a quick fix to complex problems," he explained. "We see it as a cure-all to every social ill, from teen pregnancy to violence. People think that if only we feel better about ourselves, these things would not happen."

This along with the Tiger Mother blow up from the weekend is causing an interesting discussion on how Americans are raising their children and what, if anything, needs to be changed.
Best quote from the article: "It wouldn't be correct to say that the study participants were addicted to self-esteem," said Bushman, who headed the research team. "But they were closer to being addicted to self-esteem than they were to being addicted to any other activity we studied."
Via.