A new study finds that certain brain functions of some low-income 9- and 10-year-olds pale in comparison with those of wealthy children and that the difference is almost equivalent to the damage from a stroke.

“It is a similar pattern to what’s seen in patients with strokes that have led to lesions in their prefrontal cortex,” which controls higher-order thinking and problem solving, says lead researcher Mark Kishiyama, a cognitive psychologist at the University of California-Berkeley. “It suggests that in these kids, prefrontal function is reduced or disrupted in some way.”

Study: Poverty dramatically affects childrens brains – USATODAY.com

Workers on temporary or part-time contracts don’t just have budget shortfalls to worry about. New Canadian research suggests that workers who do not have job security will develop more physical and mental health problems compared to their full-time counterparts.

CTV.ca | Temp, part-time workers have more health problems

Real Change News
Studies demonstrate that the amount of mental illness in a rich nation is associated with the income gap, the difference in earnings between the rich and the rest of us.

In a big-gap nation, life is much more stressful for most people. Those lower down the economic ladder (the bulk of the population) struggle to get by on two or three low-paying jobs and have little time to devote to raising children or nurturing relationships. Those in the ever smaller so-called middle class (in fact most of us are in the working class) struggle to keep up with the Gateses.

Our overall health is also related to the income gap. We die much younger than we should for living in the richest and most powerful country in history that houses close to half of the world’s billionaires. In some 30 countries, life is longer and better. And to accomplish this feat we spend half of the world’s health care bill, over $2.2 trillion in 2006, representing about one-sixth of our total economy.

“Poor social policies, unfair economics and bad politics are killing people on a grand scale.”

This is the stark conclusion of a three-year study from the World Health Organization’s blue-ribbon panel last week. The report by the Commission on Social Determinants of Health shows how the inequitable distribution of resources, social exclusion and a simple lack of biological necessities explain why some people enjoy long and healthy lives and others do not.

TheStar.com | Opinion | Soaring social inequality makes too many people sick