Fitness Trackers, Poverty Changes the Brain, Fad Diets

Fitness Trackers, Poverty Changes the Brain, Fad Diets

The Matt Townsend Show - Season 6, Episode 121

  • May 23, 2017 4:00 pm
  • 2:23:37 mins

Fitbit Data and Your Health Insurance (15:17) Dr. Andy Boyd, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical and Health and Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago.  Our Producer Palakiko just got a new Fitbit charge smartwatch.  He loves it.  It tracks his resting heart rate, how many calories he burns each day, and even grades his quality of sleep.   But should his Fitbit data be used to deny him healthcare? Andy Boyd explains how fitness trackers come with many issues involving personal data How Poverty Changes the Brain (1:03:12) Elisabeth Babcock, Ph.D. is the President and CEO of Economic Mobility Pathways (EMPath), a national charitable organization dedicated to creating new pathways to economic independence for low-income women and their families. Beth’s role as CEO is to lead EMPath in its strategy to be a research and innovations powerhouse consistently delivering new approaches that expedite pathways out of poverty. A new study by EMPath examines how poverty really affects the brain. People in poverty tend to get stuck in vicious cycles where stress leads to bad decision-making, compounding other problems and reinforcing the idea that they can’t improve their own lives. Elizabeth Babcock explains the research. Fad Diets (1:51:47) Ron Hager, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Exercise Sciences in the College of Life Sciences at Brigham Young University. One of his areas of interest is Chronic Disease Prevention. Ron Hager talks about the Bacon Diet and explains the pros and cons of fad diets.