Can Blood Pressure Determine the Sex of a Baby?

Here is an interesting way to predict whether you’ll have a boy or a girl. Your blood pressure may hold the secrets to the sex of your baby. Women who have hypertension are more likely to have a boy, according to researchers from the Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. Recruiting 1,411 Chinese women who were planning to have a child soon, they assessed their blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, and glucose levels at the start and then during their pregnancies.

What they found was that systolic blood pressure before pregnancy was higher in those women who ended up having boys. These findings were true, even after accounting for the age, education, smoking and BMI of the women.

As the study author Dr. Ravi Retnakaran explained, “In humans, the sex of the foetus is determined by the sex chromosome of the fertilising sperm.”

The study was published in the American Journal of Hypertension and the authors warned that its results are not a reason for anyone to artificially manipulate a mother’s blood pressure. The results, interestingly enough, might also explain the decrease in the number of boys who are born in countries with healthier lifestyles.

Lego Building and Coding Set

Now here is a brilliant idea. With the technology world taking us into the future, why not give your kids a leg up and get them building their Legos – while learning to code. Lego is launching a new building and coding set that lets kids build five different smart toy models. These will include a cat, robot and guitar among others.

Last year, Lego launched the WeDo 2.0 robotics kit that teachers science and technology ideas to elementary students. This effort is focused on coding. The kit, which will be called the Boost Kit, comes with a Move Hub (which is a Lego brick with a tilt sensor). Users will then download the app that features 60 coding activities.


The kit will be available later this year for $160.

Just a Bit of Movement Can Make a Large Difference

Everyone knows that spending hours upon hours each day at a desk is not good for your physical or mental health. But what are you supposed to do if you work at a desk job? Here is a quick and easy way to make things better. In a new study by researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Center and the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute found that tiny changes can go a long way. They looked at three different movement conditions with 30 adults.

In one group, the participants sat for six hours straight and got up only to use the bathroom. In the second group, they started the day with a 30 minute treadmill activity of moderate walking. The third group had six 5-minute bursts of moderate intensity walking every hour. The researchers looked at everyone’s stress hormones and at their mood, energy, fatigue and appetite.

And what did they find? They found that the benefits of the micro-workouts far outweighed those of the other participants. As the researchers explained,

“Overall, microbouts of activity led to sustained effects along the day, while the effects of a single bout of activity performed early in the morning did not last throughout the day.”

As the study author Jack Groppel explained, even a bit of activity throughout the day can really improve well being.

How Starbucks Got Its Cup Sizes

It’s interesting to see where the names of the Starbucks Coffee cups come from. The options for cup sizes are short (8 ounces), tall (12 ounces), grande (16), venti (24) and trenta (31). So where did the sizes come from? Howard Schultz opened his first coffee shop in Seattle in 1986 and the shop had just three sizes: short, tall and grande.

Starbucks describes that Schultz “became captivated with Italian coffee bars and the romance of the coffee experience. He had a vision to bring the Italian coffeehouse tradition to America.” He wanted cup names that would reflect his vision.

So how did a tall become a small? In the early days at Starbucks they had three sizes. They were short, tall and grande. When the venti size was introduced the short dropped off the menu and tall became the new short.

Great Ways to Bake with the Kids for Christmas

There are so many great ways to keep the kids business as Christmas approaches. Here, you’ll learn some easy tips for baking with your kids and getting them into the holiday spirit. Enjoy!

Tips for Staying Healthy This Winter

Most of us are more prone to sickness in the winter. It’s cold and wet and we don’t always exercise as much as we should or eat as well as we might. Here are some tips for staying healthy this winter.