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Study finds that being tall could be good for your heart

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Jana
on June 28, 2010
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Your weight, blood pressure and smoking habits carry a lot of weight when it comes to accessing your risk for heart problems, but a new study has recently come out to indicate that short people have as much as a 50% higher risk of acquiring a heart complication or even dying from one than tall people.

Earlier studies have shown a connection between height and heart conditions such as angina, heart attacks and angioplasties. This is the first significant analysis of these type of studies, which includes research from all over the world.

During the study, researchers from Finland examined 52 preceding papers that contained information on height and heart problems in more than 3 million men and women.

The patients’ heights were not reviewed objectively by the experts, but within the circumstances of a specific country’s inhabitants. They discovered that the shortest people in the population were 1 1/2 times more prone to acquire heart problems or die from them than the tallest people.

On average, the short people were under 5 feet, 3 inches as compared to the tall people who were at least 5 feet, 9 inches.

Currently, scientists are not clear on why short people could be more vulnerable, but they believe there could be some reasons. For one thing, being short could be the outcome of being poor. Some studies have indicated that taller people are often hired before shorter people. For this reason, some people of small stature could be malnourished, causing them to be prone to health problems in overall. Scientists also believe that more petite arteries could possibly get clogged faster with cholesterol and get harmed easier by changes in blood pressure.

On the more positive side for short people, the lead author of the study , Tuula Paajenen, said that short people do not need to be frightened. She suggested that people concentrate more on taking healthier steps such as eating a balanced diet, exercise, and not smoking; things that are actually possible to change.

BCBSNC launches new program to fight the rise of childhood obesity and diabetes

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Jana
on June 22, 2010
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Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) have recently introduced the national commencement of the Good Health Club Physician Toolkit to fight obesity and diabetes. This toolkit, which was initially created and tested in five states including North Carolina, will become accessible to pediatricians in North Carolina and communities throughout the U.S. The toolkit was designed with materials that were used with great results by BCBSNC and augmented in consultation with the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The toolkit is obtainable in both English and Spanish and is composed of tip sheets, physician reference materials, wall posters, tracking sheets and brochures with educational information.

The Good Health Club Physician Toolkit presents messages from the “Good Health Club, ” which is a group of friendly animal characters that motivates children to:

* Eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day

* Curb screen time to 2 hours or less each day

* Exercise at least 1 hour each day

* Eliminate sweetened drinks

Dr. Don Bradley, senior vice president and chief medical officer at BCBSNC, and Dr. Edie Bernosky, Chapel Hill pediatrician, are both pleased and optimistic about the new program.

In the last 20 years, type 2 diabetes (formerly called adult-onset diabetes) has been reported among U.S. children and adolescents with increasing incidence, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). One in three U.S. children born in 2000 could get diabetes during their lifetime and the pervasiveness of obesity in children aged 6 to 11 has more than doubled in the past 20 years, rising from 6.5 percent in 1980 to an astounding 17 percent in 2006.

Since 1999, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina has developed an assortment of programs in our community that focus on healthy lifestyles. The lifestyle modification program, called Health Lifestyle Choices, gave customers the support and instruments they needed to reach and maintain a healthy weight. In 2005, BCBSNC converted into one of the very first insurers to label obesity as a medical condition and cover nutritionist visits. Since 2007, they have augmented model tool-kits to assist families in getting routine exercise and taking control of managing their health and well-being.

To take a look at the Good Health Club Physician Toolkit and to get more information about what the Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies are accomplishing in their communities to fight childhood obesity and diabetes, please visit www.bcbs.com/goodhealthclub.

Working too much could be bad for your heart

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Jana
on June 7, 2010
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All work and no play could very well mean sickness or death. A long-term study has found that working too much is just not good for your heart.

Published in the European Heart Journal, the finding found that rates of nonfatal heart attacks, angina and even death from heart-related conditions were 60 percent higher in people who worked at least three hours more than what is considered the “normal seven-hour day” when compared with those who didn’t work overtime.

The Whitehall II study, a long-term investigation on the health of 10,000 London office workers who were tracked since 1985, provided the data. In this specific study, the health of 6,014 of these men and women was observed for an average of 11 years.

Although the researchers are not sure what the link is caused by, they did find that overtime workers tended to be type A people, more prone to heart disease and more anxious and depressed. The key question is: did the overwork cause them to be that way or were they that way in the beginning?

It could be that they were simply stressed out from all that extra work since chronic stress is bad for the heart. Or maybe they did not get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation appears to be connected to more health problems over time. In any case, it seems to be better for your health to avoid long hours at the office. Instead, try getting more exercise or just doing things that relax you. When you are less stressed, your productivity is likely to improve anyway.

Unfortunately, some of us just don’t have control over how much we have to work. The study adds that the workload “has increased in recent years” and the U.S. is even one of the countries that is way above average in this area.

This said, it is worth mentioning that the scientists said having “decision latitude” seems to reduce the link between overtime and angina rates in the study. They noted that it is possible that choosing to work long hours might not be as harmful to your heart as actually being forced to work those extended hours.

New life-extending advances in the treatment for ovarian, prostate and breast cancers

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Jana
on June 7, 2010
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Recently, researchers found that the extensively used drug Avastin can help keep ovarian cancer at repressed if used for a prolonged time. Avastin, which is made by the Genentech unit of Roche, reduces the speed of the development of the blood vessels that provide nourishment to tumors. It is probably the best-selling drug and has already been approved for treating colorectal, breast, lung brain and kidney cancers.

There was another study that was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology which revealed that men who had high-risk prostate cancer lived longer if they were treated with radiation along with hormone-blocking drugs.

Also, a drug created from a marine sponge has been found to prolong the lives of women who have advanced breast cancer to about two and a half months.

The ovarian cancer study included 1,873 women who had recently been diagnosed with Stage 3 or Stage 4 ovarian cancer who had also had surgery to take out as much cancer as possible. The women were given either standard chemotherapy and a placebo, standard chemotherapy and Avastin, or standard chemotherapy and Avastin along with about 10 months of Avastin alone.

It took an average of 14.1 months for the cancer to get worse for those who received the extended Avastin treatment, compared with 10.3 months for those who were given just the standard chemotherapy and the placebo. Markedly better results were not achieved with the short-term use of Avastin than with standard chemotherapy alone.

There were 1,200 men involved in the prostate cancer study. Their disease had spread to the area around the prostate or they had other high risk factors like a high PSA level. During the trial, 74 percent of the men who had undergone the radiation therapy were still alive after seven years, compared with 66 percent of the men who had been given only the hormone therapy.

The drug, Eribulin, derived from the marine sponge, was tested in a study of 762 women with metastatic breast cancer. The women who were given Eribulin lived an average of 13.1 months, compared with 10.7 months for the women who received the drug that their doctor chose.

Potential liver damage with two weight-loss pills

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Jana
on June 1, 2010
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Federal health officials from the FDA are warning consumers that two weight loss pills, called Alli and Xenical, could cause sever liver damage in rare cases.

The Food and Drug Administration said recently that it has put a warning concerning the risk on the label of the drug Alli. Alli is sold over-the-counter by GlaxoSmithKline. The prescription version Xenical is manufactured and marketed by Roche.

The FDA has identified 13 cases of liver damage associated with these two drugs.

Curb your caffeine if you are pregnant

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Jana
on June 1, 2010
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Pregnant and need that extra cup of jo to get you going in the morning? Well, you have most likely been told that pregnant women should decrease or eliminate their caffeine intake so they can reduce their chances of premature delivery, low-birth-weight babies and miscarriage. Many wonder if they should give up the all caffeine during pregnancy?

Well, British researchers have recently worked on determining if there is a safe amount to consume each day. They found that women who had more than 300 milligrams of caffeine (from coffee, tea, soft drinks or chocolate) were more likely to have lower-birth-weight babies than women who only had 30 mg. each day. The average cup of coffee has about 40 mg.

One cup of coffee, tea or soft drink a day will most likely be O.K. but you should check with your doctor first. It may be safer to give up the stimulant completely for those important nine months.

New research links pesticides with ADHD in kids

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Jana
on June 1, 2010
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A new analysis of U.S. health data has linked attention-deficit disorder in children with exposure to common pesticides that are used on fruits and vegetables.

Even though the study did not prove that pesticides used in agriculture inhibit childhood learning problems, experts are saying that the research is pretty compelling.

Virginia Rauh, of Columbia University, said this new research should be taken very seriously. She has studied prenatal exposure to pesticides but wasn’t involved in this particular study.

Because they are still developing and may eat more pesticide residue than adults in relation to their body weight, children are especially prone to the health risks of pesticides. Pesticides break down in the body into compounds that can be measured in urine. The study found detectible levels almost universally. The compounds were revealed in the urine of 94 percent of the children.

The kids who had elevated levels, had increased chances of having ADHD, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, which is a common problem that creates learning problems for students in school. The findings were published on May 17 in Pediatrics.

The precise cause for the children’s reported ADHD are not clear right now. Many factors might have caused the symptoms and the link to the pesticides could be by chance.

The children in the study could have eaten food treated with pesticides, breathed it in the air or swallowed it in their drinking water. The study did not designate exactly how they were exposed. Experts believe it is probable that the children who don’t live near farms are exposed by what they are using.

Researchers are closing in on a way to screen for ovarian cancer

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Jana
on June 1, 2010
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Healthy women may soon be able to be screened for ovarian cancer. Unfortunately, ovarian cancer is a disease that usually doesn’t reveal any symptoms until it is too late.

Before they caused symptoms, deadly tumors were found with the combination of ultrasound exams and a simple blood test during this study. This said, the study, which was performed on more than 3,000 American women, is currently not quite large enough to defend screening with this method. Doctors are optimistic though, because it validates early results from a larger study going on in England that will provide a definite answer in a few years.

The U.S. study indicates that this method will be able to locate aggressive, deadly tumors, without having to make healthy women endure unneeded follow-up tests. Not many of the women in the study needed exploratory surgery after screening. For those who did, one in three turned out to have an invasive cancer. All of the aggressive cancers that were detected were found in an early, curable stage according to Dr. Laura Havrilesky, a women’s cancer specialist at Duke University.

Dr. Karen Lu, of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, says that the method “is starting to look very, very promising.”

Researchers have been testing CA-125, which is a protein in the blood that is usually high in most women with ovarian cancer. There are many reasons that it can be high, such as uterine fibroids and harmless cysts, so it’s not accurate enough to be used by itself for screening.

Ovarian cancer is incredibly deadly because almost 80 percent of cases are found at an advanced stage. Last year, approximately 21,550 women were diagnosed with it and 14,600 died in the U.S. If the cancer is found early, five-year survival is 94 percent, according to the American Cancer Society.

WARNING SYMPTOMS OF OVARIAN CANCER

Contact your MD if you develop one or more of these symptoms and they persist for 2-3 weeks:

-Abdominal Swelling/Bloating/Clothes Too Tight
-Abdominal/Pelvic Pain or Pressure or Feeling “Full”
-Gastrointestinal Symptoms (such as gas, indigestion,  nausea, or changes in bowel movements)
-Vaginal Bleeding or Discharge
-Urinary Problems – Urgency, Burning, or Spasms
-Fatigue and/or Fever
-Pain During Intercourse
-Back Pain
-Difficulty Breathing





Statistics concerning diet and exercise appear unfair to women

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Jana
on May 12, 2010
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Once again, mother nature seems to be harder on women than men. New research has come out revealing that women need lots of exercise to keep off the extra pounds as they age.

For older women who aren’t dieting, at least an hour of moderate exercise each day is recommended just to maintain a healthy weight. And for those of us who are already pleasantly plump, which is the majority of American women, even more exercise is suggested to keep from gaining weight without eating less, according to the study.

John Foreyt, a behavioral medicine expert who evaluated the study but wasn’t involved in the research, said “we all have to work at it. If it were easy to be skinny, we would all be skinny.”

So what is considered moderate exercise? Some examples are brisk walking, leisurely bicycling and golfing. Don’t get upset if you can’t commit to this for at least an hour a day. The researchers kindly reassured us that even a sprinkling of exercise is good for our health, even if it won’t make us thin.

The findings in this report were based on 34,079 non-dieting middle-age women that were observed for around 13 years. During the study, the women gained an average of 6 pounds.

The ones who began the study at a healthy weight, with a body mass index less than 25, and who also gained little or no weight in the study regularly got around an hour of moderate daily activity. There were only 13 percent in this group of women. A few women who were already overweight exercised the same, but it wasn’t enough to keep them from gaining weight. The results show just how hard it is to maintain a healthy weight in our society.

The results support a 2002 Institute of Medicine report that stressed the importance of balancing diet and exercise and recommended at least 60 minutes of daily moderate activity for adults as well as children. In addition, the study claimed that the 2008 U.S. guidelines urging around 30 minutes of exercise 5 days a week will not keep the pounds from creeping on as we get older unless some calories are also cut out.

The study reaffirms some inescapable things about aging. Men and women often add weight, to some extent, because their metabolism slows down with age. Dr.I-Min Lee, the study’s lead author, said it possibly has less to do with that than the natural tendency to get more sedentary, without changing eating habits as we age.

Women are prone to gain weight, especially in the belly area, due to hormonal changes in menopause. Even so, Lee stressed that the benefits of exercise go beyond what you see visually. Exercise helps the heart stay healthy and protects against chronic disease, even if you don’t exercise enough to lose weight.

Expensive back surgeries are often risky and unnecessary

Published
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Jana
on May 12, 2010
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According to a study of Medicare patients, more complex and expensive spinal fusion surgeries are increasing. Sometimes they are even performed unnecessarily for common lower back conditions that are the result of aging and arthritis.

The scary part is that these challenging operations are riskier and can lead to even more complications and sometimes even death.

The researchers claim that the cost to Medicare, for the hospital charges on the three types of back surgery reviewed, is around $1.65 billion annually.

In the study, all of the patients had  a condition called stenosis in their lower back. This is a painful squeezing in the spine that is common in people over 50. Three different types of surgery for the condition were compared by the researchers: simple fusion, decompression and complex fusion.

Dr. Richard Deyo of Oregon Health and Science University in Portland said, “It’s not necessarily true that the more aggressive surgery is better, at least in terms of safety.” There is currently not much agreement when it comes to the best way of treating chronic lower back pain. A lot of it depends on exactly what is causing the pain.

Deyo said that before considering surgery, patients should ask their doctors about other avenues to complicated operations. Perhaps steroid injections or physical therapy could be tried first. Maybe even a simple decompression procedure could be as effective as a spinal fusion and with less risk.

A decompression procedure is the simplest method in the Medicare study. In this procedure, a surgeon cuts away part of the bone that is pressing painfully on the nerves. It can run around $30,000 in hospital and surgeon fees.

During a fusion, a surgeon secures two or more vertebrae together using a bone graft, sometimes using plates and screws. A complex fusion, as defined by the researchers, involves three or more vertebrae or more than one side of the spine. Fusions can cost $60,000 to $90,000.

Data, from more than 32,000 Medicare patients who had one of the three types of surgeries in 2007, was reviewed by the researchers. It was found that a complex fusion was performed on more than half of the patients who only had a simple stenosis condition. Usually this condition calls for just decompression only. They did not have curvature of the spine or a slipped vertebra, which are specific conditions that suggest a fusion might be necessary.

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