The Best Beginning

22/04/2026

Feeling constantly tired, low on energy or struggling to concentrate?

Coeliac disease is present in 3-5% of people with iron deficiency anaemia.

Iron deficiency is common in people with undiagnosed coeliac disease because the body can’t absorb iron properly — a result of damage to the gut lining caused by gluten.

If this sounds familiar, speak to your GP and discuss whether testing for coeliac disease could be right for you.

👉Find out if you should be tested by taking our quick online self- assessment at: https://f.mtr.cool/kscibgeern

19/04/2026

15/04/2026

💬 Editor's Note by JAMA Editorial Fellow Randi Bates, PhD, APRN-CNP and JAMA Deputy Editor Tracy Lieu, MD, MPH: face increasing rates of insufficient sleep, driven by early school start times and digital media use, undermining cognitive and mental health.

https://ja.ma/4cgs9Nu

15/04/2026

When a child is dysregulated, they are not choosing behaviour. Their nervous system is overwhelmed.

The Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics helps us understand that before we can build relationships, we must first support regulation.

Play Therapy naturally offers this through:

• predictable sessions
• sensory play
• attuned, responsive adults

These experiences help the child’s nervous system settle, creating the conditions for connection to grow.

Connection doesn’t come first. Regulation does.

And play is where that begins.

13/04/2026

Children don’t heal through words alone. They heal through experiences.

The Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics, developed by Bruce D. Perry, reminds us that the brain develops from the bottom up. This means regulation comes before reasoning.

In Play Therapy, we meet the child where their brain is developmentally, not where we expect them to be.

Through rhythm, repetition and sensory experiences, play helps regulate the lower parts of the brain before gently supporting connection and reflection.

Because a child who feels safe can begin to think.

“Regulate, relate, reason.” - Bruce Perry

11/04/2026

PANS PANDAS Symptoms

https://aspire.care/symptoms-diagnosis/symptoms/

09/04/2026

The kids are not all right, and frustratingly, we don’t really know how to help them, Olga Khazan wrote in 2023. https://theatln.tc/iWlOZQcz

A study in Australia taught one set of teens a typical middle-school health class and taught another set a version of dialectical behavioral therapy. DBT incorporates some classic therapy techniques, such as cognitive reappraisal, and more avant-garde techniques, such as mindfulness, that have been proven to alleviate psychological struggles. The results were not what the researchers expected: The teens who received the DBT class actually reported worse mental-health outcomes and worse relationships with their parents.

This is not the first program to use so-called universal interventions that have failed to help teens. “D.A.R.E., which from the ’90s to early 2000s taught legions of elementary-school students 10 different street names for he**in, similarly had little to show for its efforts,” Khazan writes. “The self-esteem-boosting craze of the ’80s also didn’t amount to much—and later research questioned whether having high self-esteem is even beneficial. Anti-bullying programs for high schoolers seem to increase bullying … The consistent failure of these kinds of programs is troubling, because teen mental health is now considered a crisis—one that has so far resisted even well-considered solutions.”

These types of programs tend to flop for a lot of different reasons. In the Australian study, the teens did not opt in to the intervention; they were signed up for it. But teens don’t like being told by adults how to think or what to do, even if it’s something that could benefit them, experts told Khazan. The concepts were also complex and the instructors might have had to dilute DBT beyond the point where it was helpful. Additionally, on average the teens in the study were not clinically depressed or anxious to begin with. Teaching them to notice negative thoughts may have inadvertently reinforced them.

“Alleviating the teen-mental-health crisis may require something that is not altogether comfortable for adults: trusting that teenagers will know when they need help.” Khazan continues here at the link.

📸: William Keo / Magnum

06/04/2026

Celiac disease is often thought of as something that is diagnosed in childhood, but it can develop at any age. Over 80% of cases in the US diagnosed in adulthood. The reported mean age at adult diagnosis in North America is between 46 to 56 years!

Regardless of age, the same factors are involved in the development of celiac disease: genetics and consumption of gluten. Certain genes increase the risk, especially in people who already have autoimmune diseases like autoimmune thyroid disease or type 1 diabetes.

It is also believed that triggers such as viral infections, major stress, changes in gut bacteria, or pregnancy may also bring on celiac disease in people who are genetically at risk. However, researchers are still addressing these questions.