Posts from — May 2009

Health Tip – Audio Version - Weight and the prostate
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step: Prostate Cancer (National Cancer Institute)

A
look at men with prostate cancer finds a big risk in being obese.
Scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle say
obesity raises the odds of having the most aggressive cancer – most
likely to be fatal.

The study found an 80 percent increase in the likelihood of this
dangerous form. And some men had even worse risk. Researcher Alan
Kristal:

“In the men who carried their obesity in their guts and not their
butts, and they have a family member who’d been diagnosed with prostate
cancer, their risk of cancer doubles beyond what was caused by obesity
alone.”

Kristal says it’s another reason not to be obese – to lose weight if you have extra.

The study in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: January, 08 2007

Health Tip – Audio Version - Scared to be active
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step: A Tale of Two Cities (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health)

A bad neighborhood might be more than that for older people. One researcher says older people who live in urban areas with the worst crime, disorder and neglect are almost twice as likely to be obese.

Thomas Glass of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found it in Baltimore neighborhoods. He looked for things that make people afraid, such as vacant houses, and violent crimes, but which could be measured and fixed.

“We know that there’s a higher rate of obesity in impoverished neighborhoods. How people perceive their neighborhood and whether they feel safe is a critical part of the story.”

Individual exercise is good. But Glass says it’ll take more than individual exercise to fix neighborhoods.

Glass’ study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: January, 08 2007

Health Tip – Audio Version - Smoke-free around the nation
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step: How to Protect Yourself and Your Loves Ones from Secondhand Smoke (U.S. Surgeon General)

Every building isn’t smoke-free, although the Surgeon General says that’s the only sure protection against secondhand smoke. But researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention find the idea is taking root.

CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report says close to three quarters of households and workplaces surveyed restricted smoking.

There are still places where smoking is allowed. And the CDC’s Joel London notes that just restricting smoking to one room isn’t enough, because fumes travel. That leaves nonsmoking adults with higher risks of heart and lung disease and children who get sick more often.

And, with one in five adults still smoking, London says:

“A staggering statistic – more than 126 million nonsmoking Americans continue to be exposed to secondhand smoke in homes, vehicles, workplaces and public places.”

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: January, 08 2007

Health Tip – Audio Version - Safer in many ways
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step: Adolescent Health Data (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Safer teenagers? It goes against what people think about teens, but the statistics say it’s happened. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks the changes. Fewer high school students are engaging in risky behaviors compared to their counterparts from the 1990s.

The CDC’s Howell Wechsler:

“One of the most dramatic examples of this progress is seat belt use. The percentage of students who rarely or never wore a seat belt has dropped from 26 percent in 1991 to only 10 percent in 2005.”

Teens were also less likely to use alcohol and tobacco, and have sex.

But there are still things to work on. For instance, physical activity and dietary behaviors have not improved since the 1990s, and the percentage of teens who are overweight has grown dramatically.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: January, 09 2007

Health Tip – Audio Version - Sleeping easier
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step: Youth Media Campaign (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Keep the kids active during the day, and they’ll sleep easier at night. And not just because they got tired – a researcher says kids who exercise more actually breathe easier as they sleep.

Catherine Davis of the Medical College of Georgia saw what happened when overweight seven- to 11-year-olds took part in about three months of daily aerobic exercise. Her study in the journal Obesity was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Davis looked at breathing problems that can affect sleep, notably snoring. She found exercise seemed to pay off:

“Of the kids in the study who started out screening positive for sleep-disordered breathing – that seemed to have a problem – a quarter of the kids in the study – half of them improved to not showing that they had a problem at the end.”

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: January, 10 2007

Health Tip – Audio Version -Diabetes and getting glasses

Health Tip – Healthy Next Step: Take Charge of Your Diabetes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

Diabetes
can be treated, and part of the treatment is protecting the eyes. But a
study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that a
lot of people with diabetes who could improve their vision just by
getting glasses don’t.

The CDC’s Dr. Xinzhi Zhang:

“About two-thirds of people with diabetes who have vision problems
can benefit from appropriate correction with glasses, contact lenses or
surgery.”

Zhang also says people with diabetes need to get a yearly vision
check, because diabetes raises their risk of many vision problems, some
of which can lead to blindness. These include cataracts, glaucoma, and
a condition called diabetic retinopathy, in which the light-sensitive
tissue at the back of the eye is damaged.

It’s more reason for people with diabetes to keep their blood sugar under control.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: January, 11 2007

Health Tip – Audio Version - Radon: Can you tell it’s there?
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step: A Citizen’s Guide to Radon: The Guide to Protecting Yourself and Your Family from Radon (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

You
can’t see it, smell it or taste it, but radon is blamed for about
20,000 lung cancer deaths a year. Radon seeps into buildings – homes,
for instance – as a radioactive gas. It can get trapped, and build up.

Nearly 80 percent of U.S. homes have not been tested for radon. So
the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office and the Environmental Protection
Agency call on people to find out.

Acting Surgeon General Dr. Kenneth Moritsugu:

“You can check your home yourself, with an inexpensive test kit, or
you can hire an expert to come to your home to do it for you. Test your
home. Protect your family.”

If you find radon, you may need an expert to help you fix the problem. State radon offices have lists of experts.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: January, 18 2007

Health Tip – Audio Version - Keeping going

Health Tip – Healthy Next Step:Exercise: The Key To The Good Life (The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports)

Use
it or lose it applies even when you are growing old. Researchers say
older people who start exercising are more likely than folks who don’t
exercise to hold onto their ability to walk at the same pace and
distance.

Marco Pahor of the University of Florida saw what happened when
people from 70 to as old as 89 years of age started doing moderate
activity – endurance, flexibility, strength and balance – mostly
walking.

After about a year, exercisers did considerably better than people who didn’t exercise.

Pahor’s conclusion:

“We would recommend that older persons who are sedentary engage in
moderate physical activity, primarily walking, and resistance
exercises, on most days of the week.”

The study in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: January, 18 2007

Health Tip – Audio Version - Smoking, genes and cleft palate
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step:Scientists Discover How Maternal Smoking Can Cause Cleft Lip and Palate (National Institutes of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health)

A genetics study finds an added danger in smoking – an unusual link to a common birth defect, cleft lip and palate.

Researchers in the United States and Denmark looked at a gene for a protein that helps the body deal with toxic substances. Jeff Murray of the University of Iowa says mothers who smoke a pack a day, and whose fetuses lack both working copies of this gene, have the highest risk.

“The chance of them having a child with a cleft is about one in 50 pregnancies, as opposed to one in one-thousand pregnancies for women who don’t smoke and where their fetuses have normal copies of the gene.”

Murray says women shouldn’t smoke before or during pregnancy.

The study in the American Journal of Human Genetics was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: January, 18 2007

Health Tip – Audio Version - Taking the test
Health Tip – Healthy Next Step: Testing
for AIDS (AIDS.gov)

An
HIV test is a test worth taking. It will let people know if they have
been infected, it can lead to earlier treatment, and it can reduce the
risk of infecting others. A quarter of people who carry the virus that
causes AIDS don’t know they are infected.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says testing of people between the ages of 13 and 64 should be routine.

There are different types of tests. Dr. Bernie Branson of the CDC:

“Some doctors might use a rapid test; results from rapid tests are
available in just 10 to 20 minutes. They can be done with a
finger-stick blood sample or even an oral swab from inside the mouth.
Other doctors may choose to take a small amount of blood from your arm
and send it to the lab with other blood work for a conventional HIV
test.”

Health Tip courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last revised: January, 18 2007