In this episode, Greg Dickens and I discuss recent news on how childhood vitamin D levels correlate with heart health, on the effects of sun exposure on multiple sclerosis, and how the month of a child’s conception affects their later metabolic health. We then talk about auditory processing - what it is, how it develops, and what children need in order to develop good auditory processing skills. Finally, we discuss whether we should be concerned about the long-term effects of microplastics in children.

* Topics covered

* How childhood vitamin D levels correlate with heart health fifty years later [1:12 ]

* How prenatal and early-life sun exposure reduce the symptoms of multiple sclerosis [03:19 ]

* How the weather at conception influences a child’s risk of metabolic disease [06:45 ]

* How our hearing system detects sound [11:03 ]

* How our hearing system processes sound [17:26 ]

* Whether we should be concerned about the long-term effects of microplastics [33:50 ]

What topics should we cover next?

Resources mentioned in this podcast

* “In this large cohort study of children with MS, greater early childhood and prenatal sun exposure time was associated with lower risk of relapse.”: https://www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/NXI.0000000000200375 and the easier-to-read version: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/02/250212170002.htm

* Childhood blood vitamin D levels predict cardiovascular disease in adulthood: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40296578/

* “Here we report that individuals whose mothers conceived during cold seasons exhibit higher BAT activity, adaptive thermogenesis, increased daily total energy expenditure and lower body mass index and visceral fat accumulation.”https://www.nature.com/articles/s42255-025-01249-2

* Microplastics during childhood - very little information from human trials, according to this recent review: https://www.mdpi.com/2305-6304/10/10/597

* Many more references in my article on hearing development below

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