Health and Fitness News

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.

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For those of us who are celebrating Hanukkah this week that is both good news and bad. The frying in oil is not so bad, but the starchy potatoes that make the best latkes are not so great. So I decided to experiment with other vegetables for my latkes, combining carrots and spinach, cabbage and kale, sweet potatoes and apples. I even used up the broccoli stems that were lingering in my refrigerator bin in one batch, mixing them with red cabbage and carrots. I used exotic spices like nigella seeds, cumin, and caraway, as well sweet spices like cinnamon and nutmeg. My vegetable latkes were not as crispy as potato latkes but nobody seemed to mind; they were still delicious.

~Martha Rose Shulman~

How to Talk to Children About School Shooting

by Kathleen Doheny

Dec. 14, 2012 — As the nation grieves over the horror of the school shooting in Connecticut, parents across the U.S. — both in Newtown, Conn., and elsewhere — are struggling with how to help their children through this tragedy.

WebMD talked to Leslie Garrard, PsyD, a child psychologist at Miami Children’s Hospital, and Melissa Brymer, PhD, director of terrorism and disaster programs at the UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress. We asked for their best suggestions on what parents and others can do now to help children cope.

Dog Sniffs Out Deadly C. diff Infection

by Salynn Boyles

Dec. 13, 2012 — A 2-year-old beagle named Cliff may hold the key to preventing an infection that kills thousands of Americans each year.

Researchers in the Netherlands taught Cliff to sniff out the intestinal bacteria Clostridium difficile(C. difficile or C. diff) in stool samples from infected patients and even from the patients themselves.

C diff is commonly spread in hospitals and long-term care centers, causing diarrhea that can be mild to life-threatening. It is responsible for as many as 14,000 deaths in the U.S. each year, the CDC says.

Vision Problems Rising Rapidly in the U.S.

by Denise Mann

Dec. 11, 2012 — The diabetes and obesity epidemics may be fueling a dramatic rise in the number of people with vision problems, a new study suggests.

Rates of vision problems that can’t be treated with glasses or contact lenses, known as nonrefractive vision problems, increased by 21% between two survey periods: 1999 to 2002 and 2005 to 2008. The findings suggest that as many as 700,000 more people developed these types of vision problems in a short amount of time.

Nonrefractive vision problems include glaucoma, macular degeneration, cataracts, and diabetes-related eye disease. They are caused by underlying diseases. Many of these diseases are age-related and would not be expected to increase among young people. Diabetes, however, is occurring in younger and younger people.

What Cancer Patients Need to Know About the Flu

by Rita Ruben

What do cancer patients and survivors need to know about the flu? WebMD asked Lisa Richardson, MD, associate director for science in the CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control.

Recreational Marijuana: Are There Health Effects?

by Kathleen Doheny

Dec. 11, 2012 — On Monday, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed an order legalizing recreational marijuana use for adults.

Last week, Washington was the first state to OK adult recreational use of the drug. Several other states are considering similar laws.

While much research has focused on the value of medical marijuana to help chronic pain and other problems, what about the health effects of purely recreational marijuana?

Brown Fat Transplants May Spur Weight Loss

by Brenda Goodman, MA

Dec. 10, 2012 — Mice given brown fat transplants lose weight and avoid the kinds of metabolic changes that lead to type 2 diabetes, even on high-fat diets, a new study shows.

Scientists hope the same approach may one day lead to treatments for obesity and diabetes in people.

Unlike white fat, which stores calories, brown fat burns calories like a furnace. Its main job seems to be to keep the body warm.

Smoking Doubles Women’s Sudden Death Risk

by Jennifer Warner

Dec. 11, 2012 — Smoking cigarettes may more than double a woman’s risk of sudden cardiac death. But quitting can reduce that risk significantly over time, according to a new study.

Sudden cardiac death is a sudden, unexpected death caused by loss of heart function. It is the leading cause of heart-related deaths in the U.S. and is responsible for up to 400,000 deaths per year.

Researchers found that women who were current smokers were two-and-a-half times more likely to suffer sudden cardiac death than nonsmokers. The risk of sudden cardiac death was even higher among heavy and lifetime smokers.

Generic Drug May Ease Autism in Children

by Brenda Goodman, MA

Dec. 11, 2012 — An inexpensive generic drug may ease autism in children, a small new study shows.

The drug, bumetanide, is a diuretic, or a drug that rids the body of extra water through urine. It’s been FDA-approved since 1983 to reduce fluid buildup in patients with heart failure, kidney disease, or liver disease.

In autism, bumetanide may help to correct a chemical imbalance in the brain, says Jing-Qiong Kang, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of neurology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. Kang studies the biology of autism, but she was not involved in the current research.

Distress Tied to Higher Risk of Stroke

by Brenda Goodman, MA

Dec. 13, 2012 — Older adults with high levels of distress are more likely to have certain kinds of strokes than those who aren’t as troubled, a new study shows.

Distress is a combined measure of stress, depression, negativity, and dissatisfaction with life.

“It’s really trying to capture more than negative mood. A lot of studies have looked a depression and how it relates to heart disease or stroke risk, and in this case what we really wanted to get at was a general tendency to have a negative outlook on life,” says researcher Susan A. Everson-Rose, PhD, MPH, associate director of the Program in Health Disparities Research at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

Hiking in Nature May Boost Creativity

by Denise Mann

Dec. 12, 2012 — Hiking in the wild may be good for the brain, especially if you are unplugged.

New research shows that backpackers scored 50% better on a creativity test after spending four days in nature while disconnected from all electronic devices.

Fifty-six people with an average age of 28 went on four- to six-day wilderness hiking trips organized by the Outward Bound expedition organization in Alaska, Colorado, Maine, and Washington. No phones, tablets, computers, or other electronic devices were allowed on the excursions.

Beet Juice Lowers Blood Pressure

by Jennifer Warner

Dec. 14, 2012 — Drinking a glass of beet juice may have an immediate impact on lowering blood pressure, according to a new study.

The study shows that within hours of drinking it, beet juice lowered systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) by an average of 4-5 points among a small group of healthy men.

Researchers say that drop may seem small, but on a public health level a reduction like that would equate to a 10% reduction in deaths due to heart disease.

Whey Protein, Amino Acids May Boost Fat Loss

by Kathleen Doheny

Dec. 14, 2012 — Adding essential amino acids and whey protein to a weight loss plan appears to increase fat loss, according to new research.

The study was done in older, obese adults, but the strategy may also work for younger adults, says researcher Robert Coker, PhD. He is an associate professor of geriatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock.

In his new study, he compared two kinds of meal replacements. One was a protein replacement without essential amino acids. The other was a meal replacement with essential amino acids and whey protein.

The replacement with whey won.

Olympic Medalists Live Longer

by Denise Mann

Dec. 13, 2012 — We watch the Olympic Games with awe and marvel at the athletes’ power and grace.

But are Olympic athletes really any healthier than the rest of us? Do they live longer? And if they do, what does it mean for the rest of us mere mortals?

These are some of the questions that two new studies in the BMJ set out to answer.

Coffee May Lower Risk of Dying From Oral Cancers

by Kathleen Doheny

Dec. 12, 2012 — Heavy coffee drinkers — those who drink more than four cups a day — may cut their risk of dying from cancers of the mouth and throat by nearly half, according to new research.

“We examined coffee drinking habits in nearly 1 million men and women,” says Janet Hildebrand, MPH, an epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society.

“Those who reported drinking at least four cups per day of caffeinated coffee incurred about half the risk of dying from mouth and throat cancers compared to people who did not drink caffeinated coffee daily or only drank it occasionally.”

That link held even when the researchers took into account smoking habits and alcohol use.