In this episode, Greg Dickens and I discuss recent news on how second-hand smoke affects eye development and on how child health affects later risk of many different diseases. We then talk about why our Western hamstrings (the muscles on the backs of our legs) are typically shorter and stiffer, and how we can set children up for better functioning hamstrings to help their back and knee health in adulthood. Finally, we discuss whether hot and cold water temperatures affect skin barrier function in the same way.

Did you know that liking this post or leaving a comment helps it find more readers? If you are reading this as an email, there is a heart button at the top and bottom of this email. Click on it and it will take you to the Substack website where you can also leave a comment. If you are reading it online, again, just click the heart button at the top or bottom of this post. I appreciate your support so much!

This episode relates to these two articles (and references are here):

Topics covered

* How does second-hand smoke exposure affect a child’s eye growth? [01:05 ]

* How do seven key factors in childhood reduce an adult’s risk of disease? [05:58 ]

* What are hamstrings and why should we care? [12:23 ]

* How can we set children up for longer, more flexible hamstrings? [25:02 ]

* Do hot and cold water affect the skin in the same way? [28:36 ]

These other podcast episodes cover overlapping topics:

Notes

Second-hand smoke and myopia: https://bmcophthalmol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12886-025-03890-7

Simple 7 effects on health throughout the lifespan: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.124.038566

How does water temperature affect skin barrier function? https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/11/2/298

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit guenbradbury.substack.com