First hundred hours of life

In this episode, Greg Dickens and I discuss recent news on how young chimpanzees take risks, on how certain types of dishwasher detergents may affect the gut, and on how gaming affects university students. We then talk about the first hundred hours of life - why it’s more important than the second, what baby bodies expect, and how we can set ourselves and others up for a better postnatal period. Finally, we talk about giving fruit as gifts.For more information on the early postnatal period, see this article: https://guenbradbury.substack.com/p/getting-the-first-hundred-hours-rightTopics covered* How does risk taking in young chimpanzees vary with age?* How worried should we be about dishwasher detergents?* What’s the effect of video gaming on university students?* Should teens sleep in on the weekends?* How does your gut microbiome affect your risk of cancer and your response to anticancer drugs?* How does your weight in childhood affect your likelihood of disease in adulthood, and how does this alter if your weight changes in adulthood?* What’s important in the early postnatal period, and what can we do to set things up for success?* If everyone gave fruit as gifts, would it lose its appeal?These other podcasts cover related topics:Some of my subscribers have been urging me for a while to turn on the paid option to increase my Substack visibility. I’ve quietly turned on the paid option for this newsletter. Everything stays free, but you’d like to support my work, you can now upgrade – completely optional, always appreciated. Notes“We found that physical risk-taking correlated with age, peaking in infancy and decreasing gradually thereafter through juvenility and adolescence. We hypothesize that a similar pattern would be exhibited in humans if oversight were relaxed earlier in childhood, as it is among chimpanzees.”https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(25)02713-0“The expression of genes involved in cell survival, epithelial barrier, cytokine signaling, and metabolism was altered by rinse aid in concentrations used in professional dishwashers.” (NB - professional, not home dishwashers)https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36464527/“High-frequency gamers (>10 h/wk) demonstrated significantly poorer diet quality, higher body mass index, and impaired sleep quality compared to low-frequency gamers.”https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899900725003685“Weekend catch-up sleep reduced daily depression risk by 41 % in late adolescents and young adults.”https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032725020555“The gut microbiome is a central determinant of immunotherapy efficacy, particularly in patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs.”https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-025-01212-6“Both plumper and thinner body sizes during childhood are associated with an increased risk of developing NCDs later in life. However, adherence to a healthier lifestyle in adulthood may partially mitigate these long-term health risks, especially for individuals with larger childhood body size.”https://www.nature.com/articles/s43856-025-01129-6 Get full access to Growing up WEIRD at guenbradbury.substack.com/subscribe