Monthly Archive for April, 2010

Upper body pain can come from too much texting

Published on April 23, 2010 in Health and Wellness. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

3772984885_e453a2cb30The increasing use of cell phones is resulting in a new type of pain for some people, according to Dr. Mark Sobor of ChicagoHealers.com.

Neck, shoulder, hand and arm pain and similar kinds of repetitive motion injuries can come from texting and using computer keyboards a lot. Believe it or not, cell phones were not originally designed for all that texting.

Dr. Sobor said that people are prone to hunch over as they work, which puts considerable strain on their neck and upper backs. Most use only one thumb to type, causing strain to occur on one side. Also, repeated motions of some muscles deprives them of oxygen, which can lead to spasms.

So if you are one of those who is texting more than talking, there are some things you can do to prevent this kind of unwelcome pain. First of all, get yourself ready for texting by warming up and stretching your muscles. Furthermore, mother was right when she said “sit up straight.” Improving your posture while texting can help prevent pain. Try to put your phone or PDA on an area where you will not have to strain your neck and upper back by bending over to see the screen. Also, it is important to give yourself plenty of breaks. Between texts, put the phone down and get up and move around a little. As often as you can, open and close your fingers and stretch them. You can stretch your forearm muscles by extending your arm with your palm facing up and use your other hand to pull your palm down toward the floor. Hold this position for 15 seconds and repeat 2 or 3 times for each arm. Another tip to try is to use both thumbs to text and try to keep your messages short and sweet.

Glaxo’s rotavirus vaccine is temporarily suspended by FDA

Published on April 23, 2010 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

4150560901_2350ce120bIn March, pediatricians were told by U.S. health officials to temporarily stop using one of the two vaccines used to prevent a leading cause of diarrhea in infants. This was done after they found doses of Glaxo-Smith-Kline’s Rotavirus contaminated with a benign pig virus.

Millions of children around the world have been vaccinated with Glaxo’s vaccine with no safety issues and the pig virus is not known to cause any type of illness in people or animals according to Dr. Margaret Hamburg, who is the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

The Rotavirus causes extreme diarrhea and is the leading killer of children in developing countries. About 55,000 children in the U.S. were hospitalized for rotavirus infections before vaccination began with the Merck’s vaccine in 2006 and Glaxo’s in 2008.

Glaxo said that regulators abroad have decided not to alter how Rotarix is used as scientists research the importance of this new finding.

The oral vaccine, Rotarix, is created from a diluted strain of human rotavirus that is grown inside living cells before it is purified into a vaccine dose. Glaxo uses a line of monkey kidney cells or vero cells. According to Hamburg, the pig virus DNA fragments have been found in Glaxo’s cell bank. This means that they were there from the earliest development of the vaccine. It is not yet known how the contamination happened but an investigation is being performed.

The rotavirus vaccine created by Merck is made by a completely different process.

Why excess belly fat is a health hazard

Published on April 19, 2010 in Health and Wellness. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , , .

Having too much belly fat is definitely a bummer when you are trying to shop for new jeans or put on that swimsuit for that first day at the pool. This said, it is also linked with a smorgasbord of health problems like increased blood glucose levels, Type 2 diabetes, elevated blood pressure and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Dr. Donald Hensrud, the chair of the division of preventive medicine at the Mayo Clinic diet, said “There’s an increased risk of heart disease with increasing waist circumference or abdominal fat, and increased risk of overall mortality.”

So basically,  if you can lose the belly, you’ll be happier and healthier.

According to Hensrud, there are two kinds of belly fat; subcutaneous fat and visceral fat. Inside the abdominal wall you have visceral fat and outside the abdominal wall is subcutaneous fat, which is the fat that you can actually grab. It is usually assumed that visceral fat is more dangerous and is linked with more health risks.  Most of the time, this is true, but there’s some evidence that subcutaneous fat can be harmful as well.

So what do you do if you are extra thick around the middle? Well there are steps you can take. First of all, if you drink alcohol, try to stop or cut down, especially if you like beer. If you can’t stop cold turkey, at least switch to light beer and try to limit your drinking to the weekends.

There is some evidence that points to skipping breakfast as being a culprit in visceral fat accumulation, according to Hensrud. He also said that some dietary patterns tend to affect fat distribution. One study revealed that a diet with 25 percent of calories coming from fructose was connected with a surge in weight gain.

I’m sure I don’t have to remind you to exercise when you are trying to reduce that belly, but forget about spot-reducing. Hensrud said “Either doing specific exercise, crunches, or wearing one of these belts around the middle things, it doesn’t work.”

The good news is that once you do begin to lose weight, you may notice it first in your belly area. According to Hensrud, visceral fat appears to be more metabolically active, so it’s accumulated and broken down more rapidly that fat in other areas.

Hensrud also said that two studies found that people who failed to lose weight during an exercise program still lost visceral fat in their abdomens.

Drug for menstrual cramps is being developed

Published on April 6, 2010 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

3153325402_7a2c7bfac0Well there is finally some good news for every woman out there who has experienced the excruciating menstrual cramps that can come with getting your period; the pain that no man can truly understand and that most all women endure to some degree every month.

There is a British company that is striving to create a medication that is aiming against the exact cause of menstrual cramps. Recently at a medical conference, the researchers revealed data from a clinical trial.

Contractions of the uterus and an escalation of the hormone vasopressin are what generate menstrual cramps. The purpose of this innovative medicine, called VA111913, is to shut off this hormone. The usual treatments women currently use for help with painful cramps are pain medicine and birth control pills. These do help, but they only deal with the symptoms of menstrual cramps, not the actual cause.

About 50 percent of all women undergo some type of menstrual cramps, but there are 10 to 20 percent who have a severe condition called dysmenorrhea. This condition is one of the main reasons for women to miss school and work in America.

Several antidepressants may reduce libido for some people

Published on April 6, 2010 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments

We all probably know someone who has taken antidepressants and many of us have even had them prescribed to us. Unfortunately, we may not all be aware of the sexual side effects that some of these may cause.

Several antidepressants, including Prozac (fluoxetine), Zoloft (sertraline), Paxil (paroxetine), Celexa (citalopram), Effexor (venlafaxine), Pristiq (desvenlafaxine) and Lexapro (escitalopram), can all lead to sexual side effects. There have been some studies that have discovered that one-third to two-thirds of patients who took these drugs can encounter lower sex drive, diminished arousal and  a slower time to reach climax. Some patients have even reported a type of genital “anesthesia” and having orgasms without pleasure.

Even though there are numerous doctors who believe that these type of unwanted side effects usually goes away soon after patients stop taken their antidepressants, it might not always happen. There is one analysis of case reports which found that specific types of antidepressants can have long-term effects on every part of sexual responses and may continue even after they are stopped.

BCBSNC CEO is now in favor of health reform bill

Published on April 6, 2010 in BCBSNC and Health Insurance. 0 Comments

The CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, Brad Wilson, has recently revealed that he stands behind the health-care reform bill that passed in the evening of March 21. He says “It’s a step in the right direction, however, there is still a lot of work to do to give Americans a health-care system that they can both depend on and afford.”

He also appealed to Congress for them to try and tackle the rising health-care costs that have caused major surges in the cost of insurance in the past few years.

This surprising show of support from the CEO of BCBSNC is in sharp contrast for the insurance company that was formerly opposed to the bill and even organized a campaign that debated against health-care reform legislation passed by the House of Representatives.

Wilson announced that his company, the state’s largest health insurer, is getting ready for the changes that the new law will bring. Just days before taking over from Greczyn on February 1 from COO to CEO, Wilson announced to TBJ that his reservation over the health-care reform was his utmost concern about BCBSNC. The company controls almost 97 percent of individual of the health insurance market in North Carolina.