Health and Fitness News

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, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.

Lavash is a flatbread, a staple of meals in Iran, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.

When you bake it, lavash becomes crispy on the edges. If you let it go for too long in the oven, it will be crisp all the way through, like a cracker. Despite the texture, lavash makes a great vehicle for any number of healthy toppings.

At Iranian markets, lavash is sold in sheets so big that half the bread dries out before you can finish it. As an alternative, Trader Joe’s now sells lavash in 9-by-12-inch sheets. Half of one makes a perfect serving.

Extending daylight could boost health, help planet

(Reuters) – Putting the clocks back in winter is bad for health, wastes energy and increases pollution, scientists say, and putting an end to the practice in northern areas could bring major health and environmental benefits.

Countries across Europe, the United States, Canada and parts of the Middle East mark the start of winter by ending Daylight Saving Time (DST) and putting their clocks back by an hour — often in late October or early November — a move that means it is lighter by the time most people get up to start their day.

But this also robs afternoons of an hour of daylight, and some experts argue that in more northern regions, the energy needed to brighten this darkness, and the limits it puts on outdoor activities are harming our health and the environment.

New colon cancer test works without colonoscopy

(Reuters) – A new kind of test that finds evidence of colon cancer in the stool can also detect pre-cancerous growths, and could potentially be an alternative to colonoscopies, researchers reported on Thursday.

Exact Sciences’ new test detected 87 percent of stage I, II and III colon tumors, which can be surgically removed, and found 64 percent of the biggest pre-cancerous growths, the researchers told a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.

“Evening types” more likely to smoke: study

(Reuters Health) – Night owls may be more likely than early birds to smoke, and less likely to kick the habit over time, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among more than 23,000 twin pairs followed for up to 30 years, those who described themselves as “evening types” — usually alert at night and bleary-eyed in the morning — were more likely to be current smokers and less likely to quit over time compared with morning people.

In line with that lower quit rate, night owls who smoked were also more likely to fit the diagnostic criteria for nicotine dependence than their early-bird counterparts.

The findings, reported in the journal Addiction, do not necessarily mean that there is something about being a night person that raises smoking risk.

Metal pollution tied to Parkinson’s disease

(Reuters Health) – People living near a steel factory or another source of high manganese emissions are at higher risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, suggests a new study.

As many as one million Americans live with the degenerative disease, according to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation. Pesticides from farms have long been suspected of upping the chances of developing Parkinson’s, but much less is known about the influences of city living.

“Environmental risk factors for Parkinson’s disease have been relatively under-studied, especially in urban areas where the overwhelming majority of Parkinson’s disease patients reside,” Dr. Brad A. Racette of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, told Reuters Health in an e-mail.

Pancreatic cancer grows slowly, could be caught

(Reuters) – Pancreatic cancer grows slowly, taking years and even decades to develop, a finding that offers the chance to catch it early and cure it, researchers reported on Wednesday.

They said their findings confirm that one of the most lethal cancers kills not because it spreads like wildfire, but because it does not cause symptoms until it is advanced.

“That provides a large window of opportunity to try to detect the presence of these cancers in the first 20 years of their existence, before they become lethal,” said Dr. Bert Vogelstein of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who helped lead the study.

Test shows no health risk to food from spill

(Reuters) – Testing has helped confirm that chemicals used to disperse oil from the BP spill have not made their way into fish, crabs, shrimp or oysters from the Gulf of Mexico, U.S. officials said on Friday.

Tests of more than 1,700 samples show that fewer than 1 percent had any trace of chemicals at all, and the ones that did had extremely low levels, the officials from the Food and Drug Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.

I am printing this with a strong caveat. Until there are independent and unbiased reports about the safety of the Gulf seafood,especially the shellfish, I would eat it with extreme caution and would not allow my children or a pregnant woman to eat it.

Pfizer recalls more U.S. lots of smelly Lipitor

(Reuters) – Pfizer Inc is recalling two more lots of Lipitor, the world’s largest selling prescription drug, after chemicals used in wooden pallets were found in some bottles that had an “uncharacteristic odor.”

The drugmaker said on Friday that customer reports about the odor prompted the recall of about 38,000 bottles. Pfizer recalled other lots of its flagship drug in August and October.

Airbags protect the kidneys during a crash

(Reuters Health) – Airbags not only protect people from head and chest injuries during car accidents, they may also protect individual organs – particularly the kidneys.

In a new study that reviews data collected from people injured during serious crashes, researchers found that those with front airbags were 45 percent less likely to suffer severe kidney trauma.

Specifically, among those injured during car accidents, 3.4 percent of people with front airbags experienced kidney trauma, versus 7.5 percent of those without front airbags, Dr. Bryan Voelzke and colleagues report in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

Vaccine panel expands whooping cough coverage

(Reuters) – An independent U.S. advisory panel is amending its recommendations for booster vaccines to prevent whooping cough and expand protection from the disease that has made a comeback in several U.S. states.

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted on Wednesday to allow adolescents or adults whose vaccine history is not known to get a booster shot of the “Tdap” vaccine for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, or whooping cough, as soon as possible.

The committee, whose advice is usually followed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also recommended that adults over 65 be given the vaccine to help prevent transmission to infants under a year old, who are too young to be vaccinated.

UK study shows H1N1 killed 70 children in 9 months

(Reuters) – Scientists studying swine flu have found that 70 children died from it in England in a 9 month period during the H1N1 pandemic and death rates were worst among ethnic minority children and those with other health problems.

In a study in the Lancet medical journal, Liam Donaldson, the former Chief Medical Officer for England, said children from the country’s Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities had much higher mortality than white British children, as did children with serious pre-existing illnesses — especially chronic neurological diseases such as cerebral palsy.

NY bedbug epidemic spreads to the United Nations

(Reuters) – New York City’s bedbug epidemic has spread to yet another landmark in the city that never sleeps — the United Nations, officials at the world organization said on Wednesday.

The pests appeared at places like the Empire State Building and Bloomingdale’s before reaching the city’s center of international diplomacy on the East Side of Manhattan.

CDC panel votes to add meningitis booster dose

(Reuters) – A panel of federal vaccine experts narrowly voted to add a booster dose of a meningitis vaccine to teens at age 16.

Double polio vaccine holds promise for ending virus

(Reuters) – A new double-strain polio vaccine is more effective than triple and single vaccines and will be a potent weapon in the battle to eradicate the crippling virus, World Health Organization (WHO) scientists said on Tuesday.

In a study in the journal the Lancet, WHO experts said a study on the bivalent oral polio vaccine, known as bOPV, found it induced a “significantly higher immune response” than triple vaccines.

Therapy for women prone to miscarriage questioned

Reuters Health) – Blood-thinning treatments for pregnant women with an inherited condition that makes them susceptible to blood clots may do more harm than good, Danish researchers report.

Their study was designed to investigate the cause of repeat miscarriages in women with hereditary thrombophilia, a tendency to form blood clots, not the safety of particular treatments

Sexual problems? It’s probably not low testosterone

(Reuters Health) – If you believe the ads from drugmakers such as Solvay Pharmaceuticals, you might well think that getting a testosterone prescription is the key to save a faltering sex life in middle age.

But a new study adds to evidence that men’s levels of the hormone can vary quite a bit without causing sexual problems like impotence and decreased libido.

“Testosterone replacement therapy has become a very common thing,” said Dr. Michael Marberger, who heads the urology department at the University of Vienna Medical School in Austria, and led the new study.

Experts wrestle with vaccinating boys for HPV

(Reuters) – U.S. vaccine advisers are weighing whether boys and young men should be vaccinated against the human wart virus that causes a number of cancers, but some worry the vaccine is too costly to justify its use.

Merck & Co’s Gardasil vaccine is approved for boys, safe and it would be cost-effective, CDC researchers and vaccine experts told a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Thursday.

Some men would also benefit from the vaccine, including homosexuals and bisexuals, who are at risk of developing anal cancers and other conditions caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV, the experts said.

Stunting tall men tied to lower testosterone

(Reuters Health) – Being tall may not seem like a big problem to most teen boys, but in Europe a few still choose to have their growth stunted by hormone injections.

A Dutch study now shows the treatment, involving testosterone injections, might have some unforeseen effects when these boys become men.

“We saw some interesting effects on testosterone levels later in life,” said Dr. Emile Hendriks of the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam. “The good news is, it doesn’t seem to affect fatherhood or fertility in these men.”

Infants’ antibiotic use tied to bowel disease risk

(Reuters Health) – Babies treated with antibiotics for middle-ear and other infections may have increased odds of developing inflammatory bowel disease later in childhood, a small study suggests.

Canadian researchers found that among 36 children with either ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s disease — the two main forms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) — 58 percent had been prescribed at least one course of antibiotics in the first year of life.

Burning straw, dung tied to kids’ anemia

(Reuters Health) – Households in developing countries that regularly burn wood, straw, dung and other natural materials are more likely to also contain children with anemia, a new report finds.

Families in 29 countries who burned so-called “biofuels” for cooking or heating were 7 percent more likely to include a child with mild anemia.

When the researchers from McMaster University in Canada compared national-level data, they found that the countries with more residents burning biofuels were also home to more children with moderate or severe anemia.

One in 10 sexually active teens has same-sex partners

(Reuters Health) – A new study suggests that nearly one in sexually active ten teens have same-sex partners — almost twice as many as previous research found. According to a 2002 study of Massachusetts and Vermont teens, only 5 percent to 6 percent of teens had same-sex partners.

In the new study, 9.3 percent of teens said they did.

“Clearly there’s a high rate of same-sex partners among teens, and we need to recognize any vulnerabilities that may be associated with these behaviors,” said Dr. Susan Blank, an assistant commissioner at the NYC Health Department. Blank, who was not involved with the study, was referring to a lower rate of condom use and unwanted sex among teens with same-sex partners seen in the study.

Teens lie about drug use, and so do their parents

(Reuters Health) – There is a huge discrepancy between the number of at-risk teens who admit to using drugs and the number who test positive for drug use, a new study reports.

In the case of cocaine, teens’ hair samples were 52 times more likely to test positive for drug use than teens were to admit to researchers they were using, despite being assured their answers would remain confidential.

But parents might want to hold the chiding: their hair revealed cocaine or opiate drug use more than five times as often as they did themselves.

“It’s human nature to not want to share things that you know other people will be unhappy with,” study author Dr. Virginia Delaney-Black, of Wayne State University, told Reuters Health. “I’m not surprised.”

Vitamin B12 tied to Alzheimer’s

(Reuters Health) – Vitamin B12 may help protect against Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study out Monday.

The study suggests that seniors with more of the active part of the vitamin in their blood have a lower risk of developing the disease, which eats away at the minds of one in eight Americans aged 65 and older, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

However, the findings don’t necessarily mean that taking B vitamin supplements will stave off mental decline.

First-time dads’ age tied to kids’ schizophrenia risk

(Reuters Health) – Men who are relatively older at their first child’s birth may be more likely than younger first-time dads to have a child who eventually develops schizophrenia, hint results of a large Danish study.

Using data on more than 2 million people born in Denmark between 1955 and 1992, researchers found a link between first-time fathers’ age and the odds of any of their children developing schizophrenia.

In contrast, the connection was not seen among fathers who were relatively older only when their second- or later-born child came into the world.

The findings, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, add another layer to the relationship between parents’ age and children’s schizophrenia risk.

Healthy life could prevent 23 percent of colon cancers

(Reuters) – Getting people to eat a healthy diet, not smoke, cut down on alcohol and exercise more could prevent almost a quarter of the some 1.2 million cases of colon cancer diagnosed each year, scientists said on Wednesday.

Researchers from Denmark found that following recommendations on physical activity, waist circumference, smoking, alcohol intake and diet could reduce the risk of developing bowel cancer by as much as 23 percent.

“Our study reveals the useful public health message that even modest differences in lifestyle might have a substantial impact on colorectal cancer risk,” said Anne Tjonneland of the Institute of Cancer Epidemiology at the Danish Cancer Society, who led the study.

Brisk walkers have lower breast cancer risk

(Reuters Health) – Women who take brisk walks regularly have a lower risk of developing breast cancer after menopause — and it’s never too late to start, new study findings suggest.

Reviewing data collected from nearly 100,000 postmenopausal women, researchers found that women who scheduled at least an hour of brisk walking per day (or an equivalent amount of activity) were 15 percent less likely to get breast cancer than women who walked less than one hour per week.

And those who got little exercise but boosted their activity after menopause were 10 percent less likely to develop the disease than those who stayed inactive.

Stress may have only small impact on weight

(Reuters Health) – Despite the common belief that stress causes people to pack on the pounds, a new research review finds that, on average, stress has little long-term effect on weight.

The results are surprising, researchers say, given the widespread notion that stress – by causing people to reach for junk food or skimp on exercise, for example — is an important factor in weight gain.

Targeted training, fewer soccer injuries

(Reuters Health) – A series of 11 low-impact exercises designed specifically to prevent soccer injuries may do just that, new research shows.

A group of researchers working with the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) found that soccer coaches who implemented the 11 exercises into their warm-ups reported 12 percent fewer injuries among their players during matches and 25 percent fewer injuries during training sessions than did coaches who did not include the program.

“This is the first study ever published on a nationwide preventive program in soccer,” study author Dr. Jiri Dvorak, FIFA’s chief medical officer, told Reuters Health.

Kids benefit from strength training a few times a week

(Reuters Health) – While strength training was once doubted to benefit kids, a new research review confirms that children and teenagers can boost their muscle strength with regular workouts.

The findings, researchers say, support recent recommendations from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) that kids strength-train two to three times a week — though only under professional supervision.

Cholesterol-lowering red yeast rice products vary

(Reuters Health) – Red yeast rice products, marketed as a natural alternative to drugs that lower cholesterol, vary widely in the amount of active ingredients they contain, and some may be contaminated, new research shows.

The study, published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine, draws on data from past studies to show that 12 different supplements had varying levels of monacolin K — the chemical in red yeast rice that is believed to lower cholesterol.