August 20, 2008

Overweight and MSG

People who use monosodium glutamate, or MSG, as a flavor enhancer in their food are more likely than people who don't use it to be overweight or obese even though they have the same amount of physical activity and total calorie intake, according to a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Public Health study published this month in the journal Obesity.

Researchers at UNC and in China studied more than 750 Chinese men and women, aged between 40 and 59, in three rural villages in north and south China. The majority of study participants prepared their meals at home without commercially processed foods. About 82 percent of the participants used MSG in their food. Those users were divided into three groups, based on the amount of MSG they used. The third who used the most MSG were nearly three times more likely to be overweight than non-users.

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other health organizations around the world have concluded that MSG is safe," He said, "but the question remains – is it healthy?"

To read the article, click on: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080813164638.htm

August 19, 2008

Your Neighborhood Could be Hampering Your Ability to Stay Thin

Does your neighborhood have a lot of fast food outlets, few sidewalks, and no parks? If yes, your physical neighborhood may be hampering your ability to be physically active and placing you at increased risk for obesity. According to a research study conducted in Portland, Oregon by scientists at Oregon Research Institute (ORI), neighborhoods with lower mixed-land use and higher densities of fast-food outlets were more likely to have residents who were overweight/obese.

In contrast, residents living in neighborhoods with higher mixed-land use, high street connectivity, better access to public transportation, and more green and open spaces were more likely to engage in some form of neighborhood-based walking.

To read more about the study, click on: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080811200345.htm

August 18, 2008

Antibiotics Have Serious Side Effects

Adverse events from antibiotics cause an estimated 142,000 emergency department visits per year in the United States, according to a study published in the September 15, 2008 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases.

"This number is an important reminder for physicians and patients that antibiotics can have serious side effects and should only be taken when necessary," said study author Daniel Budnitz, M.D., at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Half of the visits were for reactions to penicillins and the other half were from reactions to other antibiotics used to treat a wide variety of bacterial infections. After accounting for how often antibiotics were prescribed, children less than one year old were found to have the highest rate of adverse drug events.

Almost 80 percent of all antibiotic adverse events in the study were allergic reactions, ranging from rash to anaphylaxis, and the remaining 20 percent were caused by errors and overdoses. Unlike errors and overdoses from other drugs, allergic reactions to antibiotics typically can only be prevented by avoiding exposure to the drug in the first place.

Previous studies have suggested that half of the estimated 100 million antibiotic prescriptions written in the community setting each year for respiratory tract infections may be unnecessary. "For conditions in which antibiotics have questionable benefit, such as many mild upper respiratory tract infections, weighing the benefits of antibiotics with the risks of a serious adverse event will be especially important," said Budnitz. "Because antibiotics are frequently used, both appropriately and inappropriately, if doctors would reduce the number of antibiotics they prescribe to their patients by even a small percentage, we could significantly reduce the number of emergency visits for antibiotic adverse events. Physicians need to communicate to their patients that antibiotics are not harmless," he added.

For more on the study, click on: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080812135515.htm

August 17, 2008

Tai Chi Prevents Falls

In the July issue of the American Journal of Public Health, Oregon Research Institute (ORI) senior scientist Fuzhong Li, Ph.D., describes how senior community centers in Lane County, Oregon successfully adopted an evidence-based Tai Chi program to prevent falls among older adults. Based on this success, the Oregon Department of Human Services, in partnership with 4 counties in Oregon, has now adopted the Tai Chi program as part of its efforts to disseminate evidence-based interventions to promote physical activity and reduce falls among community-living older adults.

"Our results are very important from a public health perspective," says Li. "The U.S. population is aging rapidly and falls are a leading cause of mortality and morbidity among adults age 65 and older. Falls are associated with an enormous burden to individuals, society, and to the health care system. Tai Chi, as a proven fall intervention, may have much to offer in terms of reducing the public health burden of falls and the benefits accrued for prevention."

Twice-weekly 1-hour classes were held in local senior centers in for 12 weeks. Trained tai chi instructors delivered the program. Li and his team assessed several factors including how many centers adopted the program, whether teachers and staff were successful in implementing key elements of the program, and whether participants in the tai chi sessions experienced healthy benefits. Also of critical importance is whether the community center was willing to consider tai chi as part of its regular programs, and the extent to which participants continued their tai chi practice once the 12 weeks were over.

Results indicated that the all centers invited agreed to participate and all participating centers successfully implemented the program. Program participants showed significant improvements in health-related outcome measures such as balance, reduction in falls, and increased functional independence. Tai chi has been considered a low-cost exercise activity because no equipment and few facilities are needed. These results indicate that an evidence-based tai chi program can be implemented in urban and rural community settings.

To read the full article, click on: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080811200343.htm

August 16, 2008

Combat Childhood Obesity with the Right Snacks

Providing fruits for snacks and serving vegetables at dinner can shape a preschooler's eating patterns for his or her lifetime.

To combat the increasing problem of childhood obesity, researchers are studying how to get preschoolers to eat more fruits and vegetables. According to researchers at Washington University in St. Louis, one way is early home interventions — teaching parents how to create an environment where children reach for a banana instead of potato chips.

"We know that parents have tremendous influence over how many fruits and vegetables their children eat," says Debra Haire-Joshu, Ph.D., a professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work. "When parents eat more fruits and vegetables, so do their children. When parents eat and give their children high fat snacks or soft drinks, children learn these eating patterns instead."

Haire-Joshu and researchers at Saint Louis University School of Public Health tested a program that taught parents in their homes how to provide preschool children easy access to more fruits and vegetables and examined whether changes in what the parents ate affected what their children consumed. The study was published in the July issue of the journal Preventive Medicine.

"This research shows that it's important to communicate with parents in real world settings," Haire-Joshu says. "They control the food environment for their young child. This environment is key to not only what children eat today but how they will eat in the future."

Past research has shown that diets high in fruits and vegetables are associated with a lower risk of obesity. Previous studies also have established that children learn to like and eat vegetables at a young age — before they turn five years old.

Haire-Joshu says many children today are taught patterns that lead to obesity. "We want families to provide their child with an environment in which they not only learn how to eat healthy but have the opportunity to practice what they learn," she says. "And by partnering with Parents As Teachers, we now can disseminate this program to their sites nationwide. This further impacts healthy eating patterns in parents and their preschool children."

For the full article, click on: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080811200425.htm

August 15, 2008

Fish Can Prevent Silent Brain Lesions

Eating fish that contain high levels of DHA and EPA nutrients including salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines, and anchovies, may help lower the risk of cognitive decline and stroke in healthy older adults, according to a new study.

Eating these fish 3 or more times a week was associated with a nearly 26 percent lower risk of having silent brain lesions that can cause dementia and stroke compared to people who did not eat fish regularly. Eating just one serving of this type of fish per week led to a 13 percent lower risk.

But not fried fish; that provides no protection.

For more about the study, click on:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080804165312.htm

August 14, 2008

The decision to undergo surgery can be particularly difficult and confusing for older adults. In a study published in the July 2008 issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Richard M. Frankel, Ph.D., of the Indiana University School of Medicine, and colleagues report that older patients and their surgeons do not communicate effectively when exploring surgical treatment options.

What to do if surgery is suggested?

Here are some questions to ask the surgeon:

*What is the expected quality of life after surgery?

*How many of these surgeries have you conducted and what have been the outcomes?

*What other treatments are available that are less intrusive?

Because the idea of surgery can be frightening and create high anxiety, most people do not ask these questions. The best method may be to write them down and recite them when speaking with the surgeon, and then re-ask them if the answer isn’t complete.

For more information on the study, click on:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080731140135.htm

August 13, 2008

Pregnancy and Drinking Linked to Cleft Lip/Palate

A new study by researchers at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), part of the National Institutes of Health, shows that pregnant women who drink 5 or more drinks at a sitting in early in their pregnancy increase the likelihood that their babies will be born with oral clefts (lip or palate).

Women who drank at this level on three or more occasions during the first trimester were

three times as likely to have infants born with oral cleft.

For more about the study, click on:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080731140032.htm

August 12, 2008

Living with a Partner Reduces Risk of Alzheimer’s

Living with a spouse or a partner decreases the risk of developing Alzheimer’s by 50% and other dementia diseases according to a study presented for the first time yesterday at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease (ICAD 2008), the world’s largest in the field, held in Chicago.

Previous research has shown that an active lifestyle, both intellectually and socially, can decrease the risk of developing dementia; since a shared life often entails considerable social and intellectual stimulation, the point of inquiry of this present study was whether living with a spouse or a partner can help to ward off dementia.

Living alone their entire adult life doubles the risk

Divorce in midlife and remaining single triples the risk

Widows and widowers who continued to live alone ran the greatest risk; they were six times more apt to show signs of Alzheimer’s

Social and intellectual stimulation and trauma appear to be the important factors.

What to do to prevent some of the considerable costs of dementia care?

* obtain counseling for unresolved trauma

* attend social functions 

* engage in intellectually stimulating activities such as doing crossword puzzles, reading, learning a language or other new information

For more about the study, click on:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080731073549.htm

August 12, 2008

Eating Meals with Daughters May Lessen Their Risk for Substance Abuse

Past studies have shown that family meals provide many benefits, including offering a venue for parents to communicate with their adolescents about their daily activities, as well as monitor their moods and whereabouts.

In one survey, girls who had reported five or more family meals per week had significantly less substance use than did the females who did not have regular family meals. The girls who had regular meals had about half the odds of substance use.

 “Some of the factors related to substance use in teens are linked to family conflict,” one of the researchers said. “So, if you have a kid that is sharing that much time with his or her family, it would suggest they have better family relationships, more protective factors and fewer risk factors.”

What to do:

Despite the challenges of bringing a family together every day, try to do it because you may prevent substance abuse in children or grandchildren.

For more about the study, click on: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080723192444.htm

August 10, 2008

Toxic Chemicals in Laundry Products and Air “Fresheners”

A University of Washington study of top-selling laundry products and air fresheners found the products emitted dozens of different chemicals. All six products tested gave off at least one chemical regulated as toxic or hazardous under federal laws, but none of those chemicals was listed on the product labels.

She studied three common air fresheners (a solid deodorizer disk, a liquid spray and a plug-in oil) and three laundry products (a dryer sheet, fabric softener and a detergent), selecting a top seller in each category. She bought household items at a grocery store and asked companies for samples of industrial products.

For instance, a plug-in air freshener contained more than 20 different volatile organic compounds. Of these, seven are regulated as toxic or hazardous under federal laws. The product label lists no ingredients, and information on the Material Safety Data Sheet, required for workplace handling of chemicals, lists the contents as "mixture of perfume oils."

Two national surveys published by Steinemann and a colleague in 2004 and 2005 found that about 20 percent of the population reported adverse health effects from air fresheners, and about 10 percent complained of adverse effects from laundry products vented to the outdoors. Among asthmatics such complaints were roughly twice as common.

Manufacturers are not required to list the ingredients used in laundry products and air fresheners.

What to do?

• Work to have all ingredients listed on laundry products and air fresheners.
• Avoid products that contain fragrance
• Use ventilation instead of fragrance

The European Union recently enacted legislation requiring products to list 26 fragrance chemicals when they are present above a certain concentration in cosmetic products and detergents. No similar laws exist in the United States.

For more about the study, click on:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080723134438.htm

August 9, 2008

Exposure to Cigarette Smoking Linked with Asthma in Children

Babies exposed to cigarette smoke before birth or during the first months afterwards run a greater risk of developing asthma and allergy.

Children of mothers who had smoked while pregnant ran double the risk of developing asthma before the age of four. There was also a clear correlation between the number of cigarettes smoked and the risk of developing asthma.Four-year olds who were exposed to tobacco smoke when they were two months old had IgE antibodies (allergy antibodies) against one or more allergens in the blood more often than their coevals from non-smoking homes. The strongest correlation was observed for antibodies against cat allergens, which were twice as common in these children.

“This is particularly worrying as cat allergens are almost everywhere and are hard to avoid,” says Dr  Lannerö, who completed the study. “We can’t say how many, but some of these children will definitely develop chronic asthma.”

What to do?

To protect an unborn child, do not smoke when pregnant and for the first few months after birth, and avoid being around smokers or other forms of secondary smoke.

For more about the study, click on:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080723170835.htm

August 8, 2008

Eating Less Meat and Junk Food Can Cut Fossil Fuel Use

Worried about global warming and dependence on foreign oil for fuel? There are many things you can do to reverse this!

A new study finds that a healthier diet and a return to traditional farming can help reduce energy consumption in US food system by 50 percent.

An estimated 19 percent of total energy used in the USA is taken up in the production and supply of food.  Currently, this mostly comes from non-renewable energy sources which are in short supply.  It is therefore of paramount importance that ways of reducing this significant fuel consumption in the US food system are found.

This is totally under control of you, the consumer!

What to do?

*Eat less. The average American consumes an estimated 3,747 calories a day, a staggering 1200-1500 calories over recommendations.  Traditional American diets are high in animal products, and junk and processed foods in particular, which by their nature use more energy than that used to produce staple foods such as potatoes, rice, fruits and vegetables.  By just reducing junk food intake and converting to diets lower in meat, you can have a massive impact on fuel consumption as well as improving your health.

*Move towards more traditional, organic farming methods  by buying only organically produced foods. This would help because conventional meat and dairy production is extremely energy intensive.  Similarly, in crop production, reduced pesticide use, increased use of manure, cover crops and crop rotations improve energy efficiency.

* The most dramatic reduction in energy used for food processing would come about if you reduced your demand for highly processed foods.  This would also help cut down food miles and its related fuel cost as US food travels an average of 2,400 km before it is consumed.

This study argues strongly that the consumer is in the strongest position to contribute to a reduction in energy use.  As individuals embrace a ‘greener’ lifestyle, an awareness of the influence their food choices have on energy resources might be added encouragement for them to buy good, local produce and avoid highly processed, heavily packaged and nutritionally inferior food.  As well as leading to a cleaner environment, this would also lead to better health.

For more information, click on:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080723094838.htm

August 7, 2008

Fish Oil and Red Yeast Rice Good Alternative to Taking Statins

A group of researchers examined whether an alternative approach to treating high blood cholesterol (red rice yeast and fish oil plus a lifestyle program) could provide an effective treatment option for patients who are unable or unwilling to take statins.

The researchers noted that there was a reduction in LDL (the “bad”) cholesterol levels in both groups but the alternative group reduced their levels more (42.4 percent vs. 39.6 for statins).The alternative treatment group also had a substantial reduction in triglycerides, another form of fat found in the blood (and considered by some experts to be more important than cholesterol), and lost more weight.

For more about the study, click on:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080708122441.htm

August 6, 2008

What Causes Girls to Gain Weight?

Researchers in a new study found that more Internet time, more alcohol consumption, and less sleep resulted in extra weight gain during the study year. Girls aged 18 years or older who consumed 2 or more alcoholic beverages a week or slept less than 6 hours a night gained more weight than other study participants. In fact, when combined with Internet use, girls in this group have the potential to gain four extra pounds a year. The researchers did not find a link between coffee consumption and weight gain, although they point out that this information was collected before high calorie coffee drinks became popular.

 What to do?

Encourage your daughters and granddaughters to sleep more hours, reduce their Internet time and alcohol consumption if they want to maintain a healthy weight.

 For more about the study, click on:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080709084033.htm

August 5, 2008

Women who have Caesarean Deliveries should Ask for Manual Placental Removal

The way the placenta is removed in Caesarean births may affect a woman's chance of complications such as endometritis (infection of lining of the womb) and post-operative bleeding. One possible cause of endometritis is that bacteria on the surgeon's gloves are carried into the womb during manual removal of the placenta. In cord traction, the surgeon's hand doesn't enter the womb. Instead the woman is given oxytocin and external massage, which detach the placenta and it is then pulled from the womb by gentle traction on the umbilical cord.

A new study compares the advantages of the two techniques. Researchers reviewed 15 trials involving a total of 4,694 women and found that there was an increased risk of endometritis and high blood loss in caesareans where the placenta was removed by hand. Women who had manual removal also stayed in hospital longer after their operations.

Although cord traction may take a little bit longer, there are clear health benefits of this method over manual removal of the placenta," says lead researcher Rose Anorlu, a gynaecologist at the College of Medicine of the University of Lagos in Nigeria.

What to do?

Ask for a manual placental removal if you’re having a Caesarean delivery.

For more information on the study, click on:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080715204812.htm

August 4, 2008

Overweight Infants Associated with Child Care

According to a new study co-written by University of Illinois community health professor Juhee Kim and Karen Peterson, a professor of nutrition and society at Harvard University’s School of Public Health, child-care factors and feeding practices may indeed play a role in infant overweight.

Only starting solid foods before 4 months of age was associated with increased overweight among infants.

“Infants who initiated child care before 3 months of age had lower rates of ever having been breastfed and higher rates of early introduction of solid foods,” the researchers wrote. “Infants in parental care were more likely to have breastfeeding initiated and solid foods introduced after 4 months of age compared with those in child-care settings.”

Infants in part-time child care gained more weight by 9 months of age, compared with those receiving only parental care. Those being cared for by relatives also showed a weight gain.

What to do to keep your child a healthy weight and avoid obesity?

If you’re a parent you may want to have enough communication with child-care providers about when, what and how to feed your baby during their stay in day care. When do you want solid foods introduced?

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080711125729.htm

August 3, 2008

Increasing your Child’s or Grandchild’s Self-Esteem

A new study reveals that mothers who controlled their child’s activity choices as well as the pace and duration of activities by preventing the child by using physical negative touch (restraining a child by the shoulder or the wrist) to prevent reaching for a toy.

These parenting behaviors are associated with highly verbally aggressive parenting and can affect the child’s self-esteem.

How to make play periods that build your child self-esteem?

*Avoid making toy choices or play choices for your child

*Follow your child’s lead and read the child’s signals instead of taking over the play periods

For more information about the study, click on:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080709155312.htm