Welcome to the Stars Hollow Health and Fitness 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, IMany Health Care Workers Won’t Get Flu Shots
Poll Shows 28% of Health Care Workers Aren’t Planning to Get Vaccinated This Year cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.
Basil contains flavonoids that are believed to have some antioxidant properties; it’s an excellent source of vitamin K, and a very good source of iron, calcium and vitamin A.
Pots of Basil will also keep away flies although it is unclear why, possibly the fragrant oils. The oils have also shown to inhibit the growth of some pathogenic bacteria that has become resistant to antibiotics.
Traffic pollution tied to increased emphysema risk
(Reuters Health) – People who spend years living near high-traffic roadways may be more likely to develop emphysema and related lung problems than those who live in less-traveled areas, a new study suggests.
Research has shown that air pollution can exacerbate symptoms in people with lung diseases like asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a group of serious lung conditions that includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Metabolic syndrome continues to climb in the U.S.
(Reuters Health) – There is no end in sight for the increasing rate of metabolic syndrome among Americans, with the prevalence growing among young adults as well, a new study finds.
Metabolic syndrome refers to a collection of risk factors for type 2 diabetes and heart disease that includes abdominal obesity (belly fat), high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, low HDL (“good”) cholesterol, and high triglycerides (another type of blood fat).
The main concern with this continuing rise is that it forecasts a similar increase in the rate of type 2 diabetes, according to researcher Dr. Gary Liguori, an assistant professor of health, nutrition and exercise sciences at North Dakota State University in Fargo.
Germs Right at Home in American Houses
Americans Rank High for Hygiene Habits Despite Germy Kitchens, Bathrooms
Oct. 14, 2010 — Many U.S. homes have disease-causing germs, but Americans rank among the highest in practicing good hygiene, a new study shows.
The 2010 study called Hygiene Home Truths conducted by the Hygiene Council says that even though the U.S. ranks high in hygiene practices, there is plenty of room for improvement, especially in bathrooms and kitchens.
The council sent germ- and mold-spore hunters armed with swabs into homes in the U.S., the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Australia, and India, looking for microscopic evidence of germs.
Homes of people who agreed to participate were swabbed for bacteria and mold.
Carotid stent has higher stroke risk than surgery
Reuters) – Implanting a device called a stent in neck arteries is more likely to cause a stroke or death than surgically removing life-threatening blockages, U.S. researchers said on Monday.
But patients who get surgery known as carotid endarterectomy to clear blockages in their neck arteries are more likely to have nerve damage and heart attacks, they said.
The findings culled from an analysis of 13 clinical trials comparing the two approaches to preventing strokes add to the debate over which approach to stroke prevention is best.
Hispanics Have Highest Life Expectancy in U.S.
Study Shows Life Expectancy for Hispanics in U.S. is 80.6
Oct. 14, 2010 — Hispanics in the U.S. tend to live longer than non-Hispanics, a study shows.
The study shows that life expectancy for Hispanics is 80.6. Life expectancy is 78.1 for Non-Hispanic whites and 72.9 for non-Hispanic blacks. Overall, the life expectancy at birth for all Americans is 77.7.
The study, which appears in the October issue of Vital and Health Statistics, marks the first time that this longevity information has included reliable statistics for Hispanics living in the U.S. Researchers analyzed 2006 data from death certificates in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories.
Virus Behind Oral Cancer Epidemic
Study Shows ‘Startling Increase’ in Oral Cancer Is Linked to Sexually Transmitted HPV
Oct. 13, 2010 — Researchers warn of an ongoing epidemic of oral cancer caused by the sexually transmitted human papillomavirus (HPV).
A study in Stockholm, Sweden, finds that cases of oral cancer — primarily cancer of the tonsils — increased sevenfold from 1970 to 2007.
They find that while HPV caused only 54% of oral cancers from 1998-1999, it caused 84% of these cancers in 2006-2007.
“It looks like HPV-positive oral cancers are rising quite sharply in the past 10 years, while HPV-negative oral cancers went down. That is why we say it is an epidemic,” study leader Tina Dalianis, MD, PhD, professor of tumor biology at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, tells WebMD.
Sleep problems common in arthritis patients
(Reuters Health) – Arthritis can substantially worsen the quality of a person’s sleep, particularly when pain isn’t well controlled or patients are depressed and anxious, a new study shows.
“Among people with arthritis, the prevalence of sleep disturbances was very high – about 23 percent, or more than 10 million Americans,” said Dr. Grant Louie, now at Johns Hopkins University Medical School in Baltimore, Maryland.
In people without arthritis, by comparison, the rate of sleep disturbances was only about 16 percent.
Louie headed up the study when he was still at the National Institutes of Health. He and his colleagues wanted a better understanding of the association between arthritis and sleep problems than previous small studies provided.
Lack of sleep linked to risky colon polyps
(Reuters Health) – People who slept less than six hours a night were more likely to have dangerous polyps in their colon or rectum compared to better-rested patients, in one recent study.
The polyps, called colorectal adenomas, progress to become cancerous tumors in about 10% of cases. As a result, they are considered to be “precancerous” polyps and a strong predictor of the disease.
The findings don’t prove that lack of sleep causes these polyps to occur. The scientists note in the journal Cancer that this is the first time anyone has ever found a link between sleep duration and risk of colorectal adenomas, and the findings need to be confirmed in other studies.
FDA: Osteoporosis Drugs May Raise Thigh Fracture Risk
Actonel, Atelvia, Boniva, Fosamax, Reclast Carry Possible Fracture Risk
Oct. 13, 2010 — The bisphosphonate class of osteoporosis drugs — including Actonel, Atelvia, Boniva, Fosamax, Reclast, and generics — may raise the risk of thigh bone fracture, the FDA warns.
There’s no proof that the drugs cause the rare, serious thigh fractures called atypical femur fractures. But these events are more common in patients taking bisphosphonates than in patients taking other osteoporosis drugs.
For that reason, the FDA today issued a warning to patients. That warning will appear on the drugs’ labels.
FDA Warns All Over-the-Counter Chelation Treatments Illegal, FDA Says
Oct. 14, 2010 — All over-the-counter sales of “chelation” treatments are illegal, the FDA says.
The federal agency sent warning letters to eight companies that sell chelation treatments online. The companies were told to immediately stop selling the products.
“These are in fact unapproved drugs,” Michael Levy, director of the FDA’s division of new drugs and labeling compliance, said at a news conference. “These companies falsely claimed that these drugs treat a variety of ailments, including autism and heart disease.”
FDA OKs Drug to Treat Opioid Addiction
Vivitrol Can Help Treat Addiction to Heroin and OxyContin
Oct. 14, 2010 — The FDA has approved a drug already used to treat alcohol dependence to help treat patients with addiction to heroin, morphine, and other opioids, including prescription painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin.
Vivitrol, a long-acting formulation of naltrexone given by injection once a month, was approved by the FDA to treat alcohol dependence in 2006. The FDA has now approved Vivitrol to treat and prevent relapse after patients with opioid addiction have undergone detoxification.
New Hepatitis C Drugs in the Works
Study Show 2 Experimental Drugs Are Able to Reduce Virus Levels in Blood
Oct. 14, 2010 — The long wait for new drugs that cure hepatitis C virus (HCV) may soon be over.
In early research, a combination of two experimental, oral, direct-acting antiviral drugs dramatically reduced levels of the virus in the blood of infected patients over two weeks of treatment.
And studies of other experimental drugs that also directly target HCV are under way.
‘Poppers’ May Cause Vision Loss
Researchers Warn of Risks of Inhaled Drug Also Known as Alkyl Nitrite
Oct. 13, 2010 — “Poppers,” the street name for inhaled alkyl nitrite, may produce more than just a “rush.” They can also cause vision loss, according to researchers in Paris, who report on four such cases in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.
Within a few seconds of inhaling the vapors from an open bottle of poppers, the muscles around your blood vessels relax, and your heart speeds up to pump more blood. The blood reaches your brain resulting in a “rush.” Alkyl nitrites can often be found in products such as leather cleaner or video head cleaner on the Internet, and are often used to enhance sexual pleasure.
Canada declares BPA toxic, sets stage for more bans
(Reuters) – Canada has declared bisphenol A a toxic chemical, prompting calls for far-reaching curbs on the industrial chemical that is used in everything from the linings of aluminum cans to coatings on electronic till receipts.
Canada added the compound, known as BPA, to a list of substances deemed potentially harmful to health or the environment in a notice published in the Canada Gazette on Wednesday.
That makes it easier for Ottawa to regulate the use of the chemical, perhaps by limiting how much BPA can be released into air or water or perhaps with outright bans on its use in specific food containers.
Analysis: Polio nearly wiped out but risk of failure high
(Reuters) – The world is tantalizingly close to wiping out polio, but experts are starting to worry about the high risk of failure and say it could have consequences for confidence in health battles far beyond this crippling disease.
Global health and vaccines experts say they have polio “on the ropes,” but are frustrated that the goal of eradicating it continues to elude them more than 20 years after they set their sights on it. They fear failure could crush trust in other major disease projects such as fighting malaria, HIV or measles.
“The failure to eradicate polio so far means there is a smell of a suspicion about all vaccine initiatives,” said Professor David Salisbury, former chair of the World Health Organization’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization. “That’s why we must achieve polio eradication. We need to demonstrate that it can be done.”
WHO takes aim at tuberculosis with new 5-year plan
(Reuters) – The World Health Organization laid out a new plan on Wednesday to combat tuberculosis and the nearly 2 million deaths it causes each year through a combination of better testing, diagnosis and drugs.
“The Global Plan to Stop TB 2011-2015” will cost about $47 billion, with money going to fund more testing labs and research projects to develop and deliver medicine to treat the disease, it said in its plan.
“The stakes are high: without rapid scale-up of TB prevention and treatment, some 10 million people will die of a curable disease by 2015,” said Marcos Espinal, the partnership’s executive secretary.
TB is an ancient illness, with most cases curable if detected early and treated with antimicrobial drugs, the WHO said.
Newer flu vaccine as effective as traditional one
(Reuters Health) – A flu vaccine made through a speedier production method appears to be as safe and effective as one produced in the traditional way, a study suggests.
The conventional flu vaccine is produced using chicken eggs to grow the virus, a slow process that makes it hard to quickly boost production in response to a pandemic, such as the swine flu outbreak of 2009.
The new study looked at the effectiveness of a newer flu vaccine that is produced using dog kidney cells, rather than eggs. It is already approved in Europe under the name of Optaflu.
Flu Shots OK for People With Egg Allergy
American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Says Few People Get Reactions to Vaccine
Oct 14, 2010 — For years, people with egg allergy were told to avoid the flu vaccine because it contains egg protein and could trigger a reaction, but this advice no longer stands. People with egg allergies can — and should — get the flu shot this year, according to a new report by the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.
About 1.5% of young children have an egg allergy, but most will outgrow it over time, according to the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network in Fairfax, Va.
Many Health Care Workers Won’t Get Flu Shots
Poll Shows 28% of Health Care Workers Aren’t Planning to Get Vaccinated This Year
Oct. 14, 2010 — Many people who are at high risk for the flu — including health care workers — say they won’t be getting a flu shot this year, a Consumer Reports survey shows.
This year’s vaccine protects against the seasonal and H1N1 swine flu. The CDC now recommends flu vaccines for everyone older than 6 months. But the survey of 1,500 adults aged 18 or older shows that many don’t plan on heeding this advice.
The findings echo those of a series of surveys by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, which showed that 43% of Americans won’t get the flu shot this year, and that one-third of moms won’t vaccinate their kids.
Tropical diseases plague poor but treatment cheap: WHO
(Reuters) – Tropical diseases that affect mainly poor people cost billions of dollars in lost productivity annually and companies must be encouraged to make medicines to eliminate them, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.
The United Nations agency, in its first report on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), urged governments and donors to invest more in tackling 17 diverse infections often shunned by researchers, which can cause blindness, heart damage and death.
It said the diseases often cost only pennies to treat. They include Chagas disease, which affects about 10 million people in Latin America, and dengue fever, another virus transmitted by infected mosquitoes which the WHO said was rapidly spreading worldwide and now poses a risk to developed countries.
Infertility more common in women with epilepsy
(Reuters Health) – Women with epilepsy may have a higher-than-average risk of fertility problems, particularly those on multiple anti-seizure drugs, a study published Monday suggests.
Researchers in India found that among 375 women with epilepsy who were trying to become pregnant, 62 percent successfully conceived, usually within two years. The rest, 38 percent, remained infertile over an average of three years of follow-up.
That compared with an infertility rate of 15 percent among married women in the surrounding Indian state of Kerala, according to the researchers.
The findings, reported in the journal Neurology, strengthen the evidence that women with epilepsy have a higher-than-average risk of fertility problems. They also indicate that women taking multiple anti-epilepsy drugs may be particularly at risk.
Hormone replacement increases kidney stone risk
(Reuters Health) – Women who take hormone replacement after menopause are at increased risk of developing kidney stones, new research shows.
“It doesn’t mean that women should stop taking hormone therapy based on this fact, but it does need to be taken into account when deciding to take the hormones or not,” Dr. Naim M. Maalouf of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, one of the study’s authors, told Reuters Health.
From 5 to 7 percent of postmenopausal women in the U.S. suffer from kidney stones, Maalouf and his colleagues note in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Kidney stones aren’t just extremely painful when they are passed out of the bladder; “people who have kidney stones over time tend to have more kidney damage,” Maalouf said.
Gentle Stretching, Breathing Exercises, Meditation May Lessen Pain, Improve Function, Researchers Say
Oct. 14, 2010 — Women with fibromyalgia can reduce symptoms of the disease and improve their function by practicing the mind-body techniques of yoga, a new study says.
Researchers in Oregon who enrolled 53 women aged 21 or older for the study say that women who participated in a “Yoga of Awareness” health program showed significantly greater improvement in fibromyalgia symptoms.
Their findings are published in the November issue of Pain, the journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain.
Drug Extends Prostate Cancer Survival
Hormone Treatment Offers 4 Extra Months in Metastatic Prostate Cancer
Oct. 12, 2010 — Even when medical or surgical castration fails, a potent drug extends survival by four months in patients with metastatic prostate cancer.
The drug is Johnson & Johnson’s abiraterone acetate. It blocks an enzyme crucial to the production of male hormones, which spur the growth and spread of advanced prostate cancers.
The treatment gave patients with metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer only an extra four months of life. But there’s more hope than that from the study of some 1,200 men with late-stage cancer at 147 medical centers in 13 nations. The study was funded by Johnson & Johnson, which is developing the drug.
Protein urine test may signal prostate cancer
(Reuters) – A protein in urine could be a strong indicator of prostate cancer risk, according to British scientists who say their findings could one day be developed into a quick and simple test for the disease.
Scientists from the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Research Institute and the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) said the protein, called microseminoprotein-beta or MSMB, is found at reduced levels in men diagnosed with the disease and are also lower in men with more aggressive forms of the cancer.
“The protein is easy to detect because it is found in urine and would potentially be a very simple test to carry out on men to identify those most at risk of developing the disease,” said Hayley Whitaker of the Cambridge institute, who led the study.
Masculine Faces Keep Women Sexually Attracted
When Women Are in Fertile Period They Prefer Men With Masculine Facial Features, Study Shows
Oct. 14, 2010 — A man with a masculine face is much more likely than a guy with less masculine features to keep his partner’s sexual attraction during her fertile period, known to be the time when a woman’s eye can wander, according to a new study.
For guys not born with George Clooney’s face, there’s more bad news. Even being super smart won’t help him compensate, it seems. “Even if women are with an intelligent man, they are just as likely to look around during their fertile phase,” says Steven Gangestad, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
His study, adding to growing information about how a woman’s preferences for mates change across the menstrual cycle, is published in Evolution and Human Behavior.
High Blood Pressure May Be Problem for Kids, Too
Study Shows 20% of West Virginia Children May Have Hypertension
Oct. 13, 2010 — If new figures are to be believed, as many as one in five West Virginia fifth-graders have high blood pressure, putting them at risk for heart attack and stroke as adults.
School-based testing of more than 62,000 mostly 10- and 11-year-olds revealed that almost 20% had blood pressure readings that were high for their age, sex, and height.
It is not known how many children nationwide have high blood pressure, or even if the 20% figure is accurate for West Virginia because of the many challenges associated with school-based blood pressure testing, researchers say.
But the findings make it clear the obesity epidemic has brought with it risk factors for heart disease rarely seen in children just a few decades ago, according to University of Ottawa professor of medicine Rhian M. Touyz, MD, PhD.
Accidental Swallowing of Drugs Sends Kids to ER
New Government Report Highlights Importance of Locking Up Medications
Oct. 14, 2010 — Tens of thousands of children age 5 and under are treated in emergency rooms annually for accidental ingestion of drugs, including common pain relievers found in medicine cabinets, a new study shows.
The report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration shows that 68.9% of 100,340 emergency department visits for accidental ingestion of drugs in 2008 were made by kids 5 or younger.
Kids of mentally ill parents at higher murder risk
(Reuters Health) – Children of severely mentally ill parents are nearly nine times more likely to be victims of homicide than children of healthy parents, suggests a new study.
However, as the Danish researchers note, the tragic event is still extremely rare, and the overwhelming majority of psychiatric patients don’t murder their children.
About one out of every 17 adults in the U.S. has a serious psychiatric illness, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. And parents with psychiatric problems affect children’s health in many ways, lead researcher Thomas M. Laursen of the National Center for Register-Based Research at Aarhus University, Denmark, told Reuters Health in an email.
New Alzheimer’s guidelines aim for early diagnosis
(Reuters) – Experts on Alzheimer’s disease are proposing new criteria for diagnosing the dementia which would pick it up at an earlier stage and should get more patients onto treatment or into trials of new drugs.
An international expert group said the new guidelines would revise the definition of Alzheimer’s to take into account recent scientific developments – including the use of so-called biomarkers, or biological signals, which can show if a person is at risk of the disease before they have any symptoms.
This pre-clinical stage, which can be about 10 years before dementia sets in, is widely seen as the best time to intervene in Alzheimer’s. Recent studies have shown that brain scans, spinal fluid analyses and other tests can help predict who will develop Alzheimer’s and they are becoming crucial to researchers and drug firms trying to develop new treatments.
“It’s very important for us to move from the old way of seeing Alzheimer’s disease to a new one that incorporates the importance of biomarkers,” said Bruno Dubois from France’s Salpetriere Hospital.
End-of-life care costs continue to climb upward
(Reuters Health) – Health care costs at the end of life show no signs of leveling off, according to new research from the United States and Canada published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
But other trends over the past decade, including a sharp increase in use of hospice services, could point the way toward bringing these costs down while improving patient care, Dr. Jonathan Bergman of the University of California in Los Angeles, author of one of the studies, told Reuters Health.
“We end up spending about a third of our overall health care resources in the last year of life,” Bergman said. “It represents a huge avenue for improvement.”
Romantic Love Affects Your Brain Like a Drug
Study Shows a Link Between Intense Feelings of Love and Reward Areas of the Brain
Oct. 13, 2010 — The euphoric “high” that accompanies the passion-filled, early days of romantic love is a common pop music theme, but is it just a metaphor or is love really like a drug?
When researchers examined the question, they found that intense feelings of romantic love affect the brain in the same way drugs like cocaine or powerful pain relievers do.
“The reason people are so attracted to cocaine is that it activates the area of the brain that makes you feel good,” researcher Arthur Aron, PhD, tells WebMD. “The same reward area is activated when people are experiencing the intense desire of romantic love.”
Mediterranean diet may trim diabetes risk
(Reuters Health) – Older adults who stick with a traditional Mediterranean diet rich in plant-based fats may help lower their risk of type 2 diabetes — even without counting calories or shedding weight, new research hints.
In a study of 418 older Spanish adults, researchers found that those instructed to follow a Mediterranean diet were less likely to develop diabetes over four years than those instructed to follow a low-fat diet — about 10 percent developed the disease, versus 18 percent in the low-fat group. And weight loss did not appear necessary to gain the benefit.
The findings, reported in the journal Diabetes Care, may sound too good to be true.
But they back up previous work by the same researchers showing that the Mediterranean diet, even without weight loss, appeared to curb the risk of metabolic syndrome — a collection of risk factors for diabetes that includes abdominal obesity, high blood pressure and elevated blood sugar and triglycerides.
Folic acid supplements no help for the heart
(Reuters Health) – Supplements containing folic acid are known to cut levels of a protein in the blood implicated in heart disease, but a large new analysis suggests that does not translate into a lowered risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer or death.
One in every three U.S. adults reports taking multivitamins containing folic acid. The B-vitamin has long been known to help prevent anemia and to reduce the risk of birth defects such as spina bifida.
Walking May Ward Off Memory Loss
Study Suggests Regular Walking May Prevent Shrinkage of the Brain
Oct. 13, 2010 — Walking 6 miles or so every week is not only good for the heart, but for the brain, preventing shrinkage and possibly dementia down the road, new research indicates.
“Brain size shrinks in late adulthood, which can cause memory problems,” study researcher Kirk I. Erickson, PhD, of the University of Pittsburgh, says in a news release.
Football Players Hurt Brain Without Concussions
Researchers Identify Players With Brain Injuries Who Were Not Diagnosed With Concussions
Oct. 12, 2010 — A small study of high school football players suggests that players who endure multiple impacts to the head may experience brain impairment, even in the absence of a diagnosed concussion.
Researchers led by Thomas Talavage, PhD, of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., and colleagues identified 11 male high school football players, ages 15 to 19, who were either diagnosed by a doctor as having a concussion, withstood a high number of hits to the head during practice or games, or withstood an unusually hard impact. Among those 11 players, three were diagnosed with concussions during football season, and eight had no documented concussions
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