Welcome to the Stars Hollow Health and Fitness News weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.
Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.
You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here and on the right hand side of the Front Page.
I always associated high omega-3 content with fatty cold-water fish like salmon, mackerel and tuna, but it turns out that there are 1,472 milligrams of omega-3s in 6 ounces of mussels (the approximate amount of meat you get from a pound in the shell), only 400 milligrams less than the same amount of salmon.
Farmed mussels are a much more ocean-friendly seafood choice than farmed salmon…. Look for mussels that are shiny and black, and somewhat heavy for their size. When you get them home, take them out of the wrapping immediately, give them a quick rinse and put them in a big bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and refrigerate until you’re ready to clean and cook them.
~Martha Rose Shulman~
These are classic wine-steamed mussels, but the broth is seasoned with a little curry powder.
Oven-Roasted Mussels With Fresh Spinach
Mussels don’t have to be steamed. They will pop open in a hot, dry cast iron skillet, on a grill or in the oven.
Inspired by a tapas bar in Valencia, this dish is made special by the crunchy almond and hazelnut picada added after the mussels are steamed.
Brown rice can be added for a mixed-grains risotto.
A dish typical of seaside towns in Italy or the south of France.
U.S. Ranks 131st in Preterm Births
by Charlene Laino
Each Year, Nearly 500,000 Babies Born Prematurely in U.S.
May 2, 2012 — Preterm birth rates are higher in the United States than in 130 other countries, including many poorer nations, according to a new report from the March of Dimes Foundation, the World Health Organization, and other leading health agencies.
The report, which provides the first-ever estimates of preterm birth rates by country, ranks the U.S. 131st out of 184 countries — ranking between the Congo and Nigeria — with a preterm birth rate of 12.0 per 100 live births. Each year in the U.S., nearly half a million babies are born before 37 weeks’ gestation.
USDA Unveils Plans to Stem Food-borne Illness
by Matt McMillen
Agency Shifts Focus to Preventing Food-borne Illness Rather Than Just Responding
May 2, 2012 — As grilling season fast approaches, the USDA today announced initiatives to better protect consumers from contaminants that can turn meat deadly.
Officials told reporters that the new efforts will allow the agency to focus on the prevention of outbreaks rather than simply responding to them after they occur.
“We will take these tools and do a better job of protecting consumers,” USDA Under Secretary for Food Safety Elisabeth Hagen, MD, said in a media briefing.
New Guidelines for Kidney Disease Due to Lupus
by Denise Mann
Early Diagnosis, Aggressive Treatment Changing the Playing Field for Lupus Kidney Disease
May 3, 2012 — When lupus attacks the kidneys, the damage can be life-threatening. Now, updated guidelines from the American College of Rheumatology are aimed at identifying kidney involvement in lupus early and treating it aggressively to stop this damage in its tracks.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), or lupus, is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks its own tissues. Some symptoms include rashes, joint pain, and fatigue.
Energy Drinks: Bad for the Teeth?
by Kathleen Doheny
Study Finds Energy, Sports Drinks Damage Tooth Enamel; Industry Says Study Not ‘Real World’
May 3, 2012 — Energy and sports drinks can damage tooth enamel, boosting the risk of cavities, according to a new study.
“The big misconception is that energy drinks and sports drinks are healthier than soda for oral health,” says researcher Poonam Jain, BDS, MPH, associate professor and director of community dentistry at the Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine.
“This study completely disproves that, because they erode or thin out the enamel of the teeth, leaving them more susceptible to decay and sensitivity.”
Hate Meat? It May Be in Your Genes
by Brenda Goodman, MA
Study Shows Some People Carry Genes That Make the Smell of Meat More Intense and Unpleasant
May 2, 2012 — Whether we like or loathe the smell of a frying pork chop may depend on our genes, a new study shows.
The study, published in the journal PLoS ONE, is one of the first to show how genes may shape our food choices.
“People who are instinctively vegetarian or vegan or instinctively heavy meat-eaters, it could definitely have some sort of underlying biological component to it,” says Kara Hoover, PhD, a biological anthropologist and assistant professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. She was not involved in the current research.
Does Dopamine Explain Why Slackers Slack?
by Kathleen Doheny
Researchers Find Brains of ‘Go-Getters’ Handle the Chemical Differently Than Do ‘Slackers’
May 1, 2012 — Don’t have any motivation at work today? You may be able to blame your brain and its relationship with the chemical dopamine.
The way your brain handles dopamine may predict whether you are a hard worker or a slacker, new research suggests.
“If you look around at the people you know, yourself included, and think of the people always driven to work hard vs. the people who prefer to take it easy, what this study shows is that the range in motivation is in part due to how the dopamine system functions,” says researcher Michael Treadway, PhD, a clinical fellow at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Losing Weight May Help Lower Cancer Risk
by Matt McMillen
Weight Loss Linked to Reduced Inflammation in Postmenopausal Women
May 1, 2012 — For postmenopausal women who are overweight or obese, new research offers more incentive to start shedding pounds.
According to a study published in the journal Cancer Research, losing even a small proportion of your overall body weight significantly reduces inflammation in your body and potentially lowers your risk of developing several different types of cancer, including breast cancer.
“I think the main issue is body fat,” researcher Anne McTiernan, MD, PhD, director of the Prevention Center at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, writes in an email to WebMD. “The more fat one has, the more inflammation-producing cells there are, and therefore the more inflammation … produced and sent into the bloodstream.”
One Baby per Hour Born Drug Dependent
by Rita Ruben
Researchers Say It’s a Growing Maternal and Child Health Problem in the U.S.
April 30, 2012 — The number of U.S. babies born dependent on drugs nearly tripled between 2000 and 2009, researchers reported today.
Drug dependence occurs when a person develops a physical dependence on a drug, leading to withdrawal symptoms if the drug is abruptly stopped. Newborns can be drug dependent, but do not have the harmful behavior typically seen with addiction. By 2009, an estimated 13,539 babies — an average of one an hour — were diagnosed with a drug withdrawal syndrome, which most commonly occurs because their mothers were taking opiate drugs, or narcotics, while pregnant, according to the new study.
“We were surprised by the magnitude of the increase,” says researcher Stephen Patrick, MD, MPH, a Robert Wood Johnson clinical scholar at the University of Michigan.
Menopause: Smokers Have More Hot Flashes
by Salynn Boyles
Genes Can Play an Additional Role, Too, Study Finds
May 3, 2012 — There are countless reasons why women who smoke should kick the habit for their health, but here’s one more.
Smoking women have more hot flashes as they transition through menopause, and this is especially true for women who carry certain genes, a new study finds.
Previous research has linked cigarette smoking to earlier menopause and worse symptoms, but the study is among the first to examine the impact of smoking and genes on hot flashes.
Prenatal Pesticide Exposure May Harm Kids’ Brains
by Kathleen Doheny
Common Crop Pesticide Chlorpyrifos May Be Linked With Structural Changes in Developing Brain, Experts Find
April 30, 2012 — Prenatal exposure to a pesticide used on many crops may be linked with abnormal changes in a child’s developing brain, scientists report.
Compared to children with low prenatal exposure, those with high exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos had abnormalities in the cortex (the outer area of the brain), says Virginia Rauh, ScD, professor and deputy director of the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
New Earlier, Noninvasive Paternity Test Developed
by Brenda Goodman, MA
Experts Say the Test Has Important Medical, Legal Applications
May 2, 2012 — Researchers say they’ve found a way to identify the father of a baby as early as the eighth week of pregnancy.
The new method, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, uses fetal DNA isolated from the mother’s blood.
The test has already been used to prove an affair in a murder trial, and experts say it has other significant medical and legal applications.
Fewer Teens Are Having Sex
by Salynn Boyles
Use of Highly Effective Birth Control Also Increasing
May 3, 2012 — More girls in the U.S. are remaining virgins until their late teens and into their 20s, with the biggest rates of decline in sexual activity seen among African-Americans and Hispanics, the CDC says.
More than half of girls between the ages of 15 and 19 — 57% — reported that they had never had vaginal intercourse in the latest CDC survey covering 2006-2010, up from 49% in 1995.
Asthma an Often Unrecognized Risk for Older People
by Denise Mann
Study Shows That Older Adults With Asthma Often Face Serious Health Risks
May 4, 2012 — Asthma is not just dangerous for kids.
People over 65 also have asthma and often face an uphill health battle as a result, a new study suggests. Once hospitalized, these individuals are 14 times more likely to die from asthma than younger adults. What’s more, asthma increases their risk for impaired lung function and a worse quality of life.
Part of the reason for the poor outcomes is that asthma is often misdiagnosed and undertreated among older adults. When an older person becomes short of breath or has tightness in their chest, they — as well as their doctors — may attribute it to age, being out of shape, or even to their heart, instead of asthma.
Multitasking Makes You Feel Good
by Cari Nierenberg
Though Not Productive, Multitasking Fills Emotional Needs, Study Shows
May 4, 2012 — Multitasking may hurt our performance, but we do it anyway both out of habit and because it makes us feel good, a new study reports.
These feel-good benefits may help explain why we keep doing several things at the same time, even though other research has suggested this juggling act is not productive and performance suffers as a result.
“There’s this myth among some people that multitasking makes them more productive,” study researcher Zheng Wang, PhD, says in a news release.
50 Years of Data Confirm Benefit of Antipsychotics
by Cari Nierneberg
While Study Suggests Medications Cut Schizophrenia Relapse Rates By 60%, Risks Are Still Evident
May 2, 2012 — More than 50 years of data show that people with schizophrenia who take antipsychotic drugs lower their risk of relapse, a new study suggests.
Relapse rates were 64% in people not taking medications for schizophrenia, while they were 27% in those who were given them for at least a year. Relapse — meaning symptoms get worse or come back after a period of improvement — is a common occurrence in people with schizophrenia.
The study also shows that people treated with these drugs are also less likely to be hospitalized or to behave aggressively or violently.
Black Pepper May Help Fight Fat
by Jennifer Warner
Pungent Ingredient in Black Pepper Targets Fat Cells
May 4, 2012 — The same ingredient in black pepper that makes you sneeze may help keep you slim.
A preliminary new study suggests that the pungent component in black pepper known as piperine fights fat by blocking the formation of new fat cells.
If further studies confirm these effects, researchers say black pepper may offer a natural alternative for the treatment of fat-related disorders like obesity.
“Our findings suggest that piperine, a major component of black pepper, inhibits fat cell differentiation … thus leading to its potential use in the treatment of obesity-related diseases,” writes researcher Ui-Hyun Park of Sejong University in Seoul, Korea, in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
Fish, Flaxseed May Lower Alzheimer’s Risk
by Salynn Boyles
Omega-3-Rich Diet May Protect Aging Brains, Study Suggests
May 2, 2012 — Early research suggests that eating fatty fish, nuts, and other foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids may help protect against Alzheimer’s disease.
In a newly published study, researchers showed that people whose diets contained the most omega-3 had the lowest blood levels of a protein known as beta-amyloid.
Beta-amyloid deposits are commonly found at autopsy in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Several studies also suggest that high blood levels of the protein may predict Alzheimer’s disease before memory loss occurs.
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