Monthly Archive for May, 2011

Husbands who help with housework keep wives healthy

Published on May 31, 2011 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Finally some research that helps support all those women who have had to nag their husbands to get up off the couch and help with the housework. Scientists have found that women’s health and happiness depends heavily on whether or not her husband or partner helps with the housework.

To arrive at this conclusion, researchers studied the daily activities of 30 working couples in Los Angeles during a period of one week. The levels of the stress hormone cortisol was tracked in each couple. This hormone is at it’s peak during the day as it helps the body cope with physical and mental challenges, and in the evening, it usually decreases when the day’s activities slow down.

Unfortunately some people have unusually high cortisol levels and some even have levels that don’t fall at the end of the day. These people not only feel stressed, but they are susceptible to a variety of physical and mental illnesses. Studies have even indicated that they are prone to die at a younger age. This is why researchers thought that linking cortisol levels with evening activities of married parents would uncover a lot about how domestic routines influence health and happiness.

All the couples studied had at least one child living at home that was between the age of 8 and 10 and the median age of the parents was 41. On average, the women spent 30 percent of their nights doing housework and around 11 percent on relaxing activities. In contrast, the men spent 20 percent of their time doing housework and around 19 percent on leisure.

Not surprisingly, the scientists from University of Southern California, the University of Los Angeles and Connecticut College, discovered that spending too much time on chores in the evening tended to keep cortisol levels high in husbands and wives. Also, when they looked at the study more carefully they noticed that the cortisol levels of married women decreased more when their husbands helped with the housework. On the other hand, the dad’s cortisol wasn’t likely to drop unless they spent more time relaxing in the evening while their wives kept busy with chores.

The researchers wrote in the Journal of Family Psychology that “arguments about who’s doing the dishes and who’s flipping through channels have repercussions for the health of both spouses.” Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, an Ohio State University psychologist, says that this is especially true for working moms. She studies the effect of relationships on immune function.

Antipsychotic drugs given to elderly despite increased death risk

Published on May 19, 2011 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

A recent government audit discovered that almost one in every seven elderly nursing home residents are given strong atypical antipsychotic drugs, without the consideration that these medicines raise the risk of death and are not approved for such treatments. Nearly all of these patients have dementia. The FDA has warned that these drugs, usually given to patients with serious conditions such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, are not appropriate for these patients.

This audit found that in the first part of 2007, the federal Medicare program paid for antipsychotics that were given in error during the first six months  of 2007. This cost the program an astounding $116 million for that first half of that year.

Daniel Levinson, who is the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, wrote that “government, taxpayers, nursing home residents as well as their families and caregivers should be outraged and seek solutions.” He also pointed out that these drugs such as Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Abilify and Geodon, are “potentially lethal” to some elderly patients and that some drug manufacturers illegally marketed their medicines for these uses “putting profits before safety.”

The audit is a rare evaluation done by the government to check if doctors are treating Medicare patients as they should in nursing homes. Levinson recommended that the government should keep a record of the diagnoses given to Medicare patients so it can determine if the drugs prescribed to them are accurate and suitable for the patients’ needs.

Even though this is common in the private sector, an oversight such as this is extremely rare in the Medicare program and would most likely be strongly advised against by doctors’ groups and most in Congress who see government intrusions into the doctor-patient relationship as wrong.

In reaction to the audit, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said that some of the inaccurate use of antipsychotics in elderly nursing home patients is the consequence of drug manufacturers paying kickbacks to nursing homes to increase those prescriptions.

Less women dying from lung cancer

Published on May 7, 2011 in Health and Wellness. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

For the first time ever, the death rates for women dying from lung cancer are decreasing. Even though it is a minuscule amount, a little less than 1 percent a year, it still provides hope towards the battle against lung cancer.

Unfortunately lung cancer is still the nation’s, as well as the world’s, leading cancer killer. This said, this drop has been anticipated for a long time. A similar decrease began in U.S. men about ten years ago. Elizabeth Ward of the American Cancer Society, said “It looks like we’ve turned the corner.”

Thanks to the success against some of the main types of cancer – breast, prostate and colorectal, and lung cancer in men, death rates from cancer have been slowly dwindling for years. Preventing cancer is more beneficial than treating it, and the U.S. has reported small but significant declines in new cases as well.

The new report reveals that death rates have fallen on an average of 1.6 percent a year between 2003 and 2007, which is the latest data available. The researchers reported in the National Cancer Institute that rates of new diagnoses have diminished almost 1 percent a year.

Diagnosis and deaths are still on the increase for other types of cancer such as liver, kidney, melanoma and pancreatic cancer. Also, cancer is predominately a disease of the older population, and it is swiftly aging.

In general, men were heavier smokers long before women, which caused men’s lung cancer deaths to skyrocket first. Then in the early 1990s, death rates started to fall, and less young men fell into the habit. The new report showed that those rates were decreasing by 3 percent a year between 2005 and 2007. Researchers have been expecting the same thing to happen with women, so they began noting signs that death rates had started to slowly fall for a few years. Now that they have a straight five year trend, they are assured that the decrease is real, according to Brenda Edwards, a statistician from the National Cancer Institute.

Edwards mentioned that the cigarette industry targeted women in the late 1960s and ’70s. She called this “the Virginia Slims effect”. This escalated smoking for some young women around this time. She said that the death rate may temporarily be increased for these women as they get older.

Lung cancer is projected to kill more than 159,000 Americans this year. About 70,500 will be women.

BCBSNC has launched a new medical cost campaign

Published on May 3, 2011 in BCBSNC. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

In April, BCBSNC launched a new campaign in hopes of increasing public understanding of what fuels medical costs and to encourage leaders in the health care industry to work together to help bring down surging medical costs. One of their main goals is to reduce administrative costs by 20%.

The material and quality of this unique campaign are different from anything that they have ever worked on before. This campaign recognizes that insurers share in the responsibility to confront soaring medical costs as well as doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, individuals and attorneys. The campaign emphasizes that all of these groups are capable and absolutely must work together to bring down medical costs.

There are also ways that the general public can help control medical costs. For one, they can ask their doctor to prescribe less expensive generic medications. They can also be vigilant about keeping up with medication schedules and treatment plans that their doctor prescribes. Everyone can and should certainly take advantage of preventive care services. And of course getting and staying active and living a healthier lifestyle are extremely important in helping keep costs down.

You can find more information and discuss your progress at their new website www.Let’sTalkCost.com.