Archive

Spread of swine flu is slowing down

Published
by
Jana
on February 12, 2010
in Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

The U.S. swine flu epidemic is not over, but it is hopefully coming to an end.

Federal health officials aren’t quite ready to announce that the threat is gone and the outbreak has ended, but they did report that for the fourth week in a row, no states have reported widespread flu activity. Since October, U.S. cases have been decreasing since the end of October.

One expert said that the epidemic is almost over and there are some indications that lead many to believe that there will not be another wave during the year.

One reason for the decline in the epidemic is that the virus hasn’t shown any signs of mutating. Also, the vaccine against it seems to be very effective. Now, about half of the U.S. population have some immunity because they have been infected with it or received a vaccination.

There is also good news from the World Health Organization, which is observing an international decline and is discussing what measures to take to announce that the pandemic is over. Experts are not sure if it will continue to slow for the rest of the winter, but they are pretty sure it will.

The Harvard School of Public Health released a poll which found that 44 percent of Americans believe the outbreak is over.

Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that most states are continuing to have just occasional flu activity. This said, only three states had zero reports, and a CDC official warned that the swine flu is still here and is probably going to keep infecting people.

Around 15,200 have died from the swine flu since it reared its ugly head in April. Most of the deaths were in the U.S. This is a much lower amount than originally feared. The U.S. and Mexican governments have been commended for their actions by experts. Scientists have also been praised for their quick development of an effective vaccine.

Pregnant women over 40 may have increased risk for child with autism

Published
by
Jana
on February 12, 2010
in Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

A new study that analyzed more than 5 million births found that a woman’s chance of having an autistic child increases as she gets older. On the contrary, the risk might just be less for older dads as indicated in earlier studies. Even though a father’s age can add to the risk, the maternal age is where the majority of the risk is found, according to researcher Janie Shelton, of the University of California at Davis.

It was found that mothers who were older than 40 were almost 50% more likely to have an autistic child than those who were in their 20s. The risk for 40 and older fathers was 36% higher than for men in their 20s.

This said, one of the experts said that the study shows that the risk of a woman over age 40 having a child with autism was still less than 4 in 1000.

The new research indicates that the father’s age seems to make the most impact when they pair up with young mothers. For children who had mothers younger than 25, autism was twice as common if the fathers were older than 40 than if they were in their 20s.

These new discoveries do not agree with current research which found that the father’s age was even more significant than the mother’s. Researchers and autism experts are saying that the new study is more believable, mostly because it is so much larger.

In general, it is known that older mothers are in jeopardy of facing more risks for having children with genetic disorders, and genes are believed to have an impact on autism.

This new study was released February 8, 2010 in the journal Autism Research.

A University of Wisconsin researcher who has also studies the influence of parents’ age on autism, pointed out that it is critical to note that the increased risks are very small and most babies are born to older mothers without developing autism.

Twenty percent of U.S. teens found to have high cholesterol levels

Published
by
Jana
on January 27, 2010
in Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

Around one out of every five American teenagers have high cholesterol levels, according to federal health officials. Unfortunately, these high levels of cholesterol can lead to heart disease.

Obese children were found to be at the highest risk for abnormal “blood lipid” levels, with 43% testing outside the normal ranges, according to the report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Blood tests on 3,125 children were performed from 1999 to 2006 to obtain these results.

Lipids are the fatty substances in the blood that often lead to plaque build-up in the arteries and the early stages of heart disease. It is recommended that children with high lipid levels get counseling so they can improve their diet and exercise habits. Cholesterol drugs are also given to adults along with improved health habits. The CDC claims that around 1% of children have high cholesterol that is treatable with drugs.

LDL, or bad cholesterol, and HDL, good cholesterol, and triglycerides were measured in the study. Adults who have higher levels of LDL cholesterol and triglycerides are at an increased risk for heart attacks and strokes from heart disease. Studies have revealed that increased levels of the good kind of cholesterol can help get rid of harmful fats.

The CDC says that the leading cause of death for adults in the U.S. is heart disease, which causes around 630,000 deaths every year. Children and teenagers having high lipid levels are at a higher risk for developing heart disease when they become adults.

Experts warn that sitting for long periods can be deadly

Published
by
Jana
on January 27, 2010
in Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

Here is some bad news for you couch potatoes; health experts are now warning that sitting is dangerous for your health and can sometimes even be deadly. Unfortunately, they are also saying that it is still harmful, even if you also exercise regularly. It doesn’t seem to matter where the sitting occurs. What does matter is the amount of time that you spend sitting.

This new research is still in it’s early stages, but many studies indicate that people who spend most of their time sitting are more prone to be fat, have a heart attack or even die.

Elin Ekblom-Bak, from the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences, said that after sitting for 4 hours, the body begins to send out harmful signals. She also said that genes that monitor the amount of glucose and fat in the body begin to shut down.

A study that was published last year tracked more than 17,000 Canadians for 12 years and discovered that people who sat more tended to have a higher death risk, whether they exercised or not. A physical activity expert from the World Health Organization said that people who exercise every day but still spend a lot of time sitting, would benefit more if their exercise was spread out through out the day, instead of in one single time period

Peter Katzmarzyk, from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, says that there isn’t enough evidence to determine how much sitting is bad for you, but it looks as though the more one can get up and break up this sedentary behavior, the better.

A U.S. survey in 2003 and 2004 revealed that Americans spend more than 50% of their time sitting.

Hypertension may be a culprit in developing dementia

Published
by
Jana
on January 27, 2010
in Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

New research has found that one of the best ways to keep from getting dementia is to control your blood pressure.

During the study, scientists scanned the brains of people to reveal that hypertension causes some kind of scarring that is related to the development of Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. The scars can begin to form in middle age, years before memory problems are apparent.

The new evidence is so strong that the National Institutes of Health is planning on studying thousands of people with hypertension to see if vigorous treatment will help protect their hearts and their brains. This aggressive treatment will involve getting blood pressure lower than normal recommendations.

The largest factor for Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia is age. Dementia affects about one in eight people who are 65 and older.

For a long time now, scientists knew that many of the triggers for heart disease such as obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes appear to increase the chances for getting dementia. This said, they thought that the link was with “vascular dementia”, which are memory problems related to small strokes; not the frightening Alzheimer’s disease. Now, specialists are finding that many patients have a mixture of both types of dementia.

Having hypertension, which is a blood pressure reading of 140 over 90 or higher, weakens arteries and  also seems to spur Alzheimer’s disease-like activity. One culprit could be the scarring known as white matter lesions. White matter works like the brain’s telephone network with a system of  nerve fibers that permit the brain cells to communicate with each other. Unfortunately even small increases in blood pressure can cause harm to the tiny blood vessels that sustain the white matter. This damage causes interruptions to those signals.

The new studies found that MRI scans revealed that women 65 and older with hypertension had notably more white matter lesions in their brains eight years later. The journal Stroke just published comparable evidence from a John Hopkins University-led study that observed 983 people for more than 15 years, beginning in middle age. The results showed that the more time people spent with uncontrolled high blood pressure, the more white matter harm they incurred.

All this said, hypertension by itself doesn’t mean one is condemned to get dementia. There are far more people with hypertension than dementia; about one in three adults in the U.S.

Puberty is good time for girls to have some fat mass

Published
by
Jana
on January 27, 2010
in Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

Most girls going through puberty dream about having those incredibly thin bodies of models that they see in the fashion magazines and on t.v. Chubby girls often get rejected at recess time when picking teams and are sometimes even bullied or isolated.

Finally there is some good news that might make some of those girls feel a little bit better. New research has found that puberty is an important time for a girl to have some curves. In a study that will be published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, scientists discovered that having some fat mass is actually beneficial for bone mass to form, particularly in girls.

This new research could help to pinpoint if and how the development of the female skeleton is affected by such eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, that are linked to decreased fat mass.

Currently scientists are not clear on why a woman’s fat amount matters. A few researchers think that some of the bone accumulation is perhaps a response to the stress created by the weight her skeleton is carrying. Authors in the study also point to a possible link to estrogen levels.

No matter what the underlying triggers are, it is extremely crucial to promote a healthy body image. When a teenage girl is too thin, brittle bones, physical and psychological damage and other long-term effects such as osteoporosis can result. So, to sum things up, being skin and bones is not healthy for the bones and is not really flattering or beautiful.

New study finds chemical in plastics may cause aggression in little girls

Published
by
Jana
on January 5, 2010
in Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

Exposure to a chemical that is often used in plastics, while still in the womb, seems to be linked to more aggressive behavior in little girls. These findings come from research that was published by a scientist at UNC Chapel Hill.

These preliminary findings, which call for more study, are the first to link behavior problems in humans to the chemical bisphenol A, a main component in plastic bottles, liners in canned goods, and medical devices.

The chemical leaks from the plastic and a percentage can be found in almost everyone’s system. Scientists started to be concerned about BPA because of the way it seems to act like estrogen, which is a hormone that plays an important role in distinguishing the sex differences in the brains of developing fetuses.

Researchers began studying the effects of BPA two years ago on a group of pregnant women who were enrolled in a large study on the effects of lead. There were 249 women in the study. At three different times during their pregnancies: at 16 weeks, 26 weeks and at birth, urine samples were taken and the researchers measured the BPA levels. Later, the women’s children were observed at age 2 by using a standard behavioral test.

It was found that women who had the highest amounts of BPA at 16 weeks of pregnancy were prone to have more aggressive and hyperactive 2-year old daughters. Oddly, there was no notable change of behavior for the boys, but there was some indication of increased anxiety and depression.

Some people have asked for curbs to be put on BPA and last year Canada was the first country to ban BPA from baby bottles. Since then, Wal-Mart and Toys R Us claimed that they would only stock BPA-free baby bottles, toys and baby food containers in all of their stores.

This said, the work of the researchers, seems to indicate that the crucial time to eliminate exposure to this chemical is while babies are still in the womb, maybe even before most women are aware that they are pregnant.

Nuts are no longer tabu

Published
by
Jana
on January 3, 2010
in Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

Not too long ago, many of us steered clear of nuts, because we were told that they were high in fat and bad for us. Finally, nutritionists have discovered quite the contrary. Now, most of us can dive into that bowl of nuts with sheer joy and no guilt.

Not only are they great to put out for most parties and usually require no preparation, it has also been found that they have no cholesterol. They do have fat, but it is actually the good kind of fat that is beneficial to our heart health. It almost seems that each kind of nut has a different kind of gift for us. Pistachios help lower cholesterol, almonds are high in vitamin E, pecans have more disease-fighting antioxidants than other regular nuts, and walnuts have Omega-3 fats, which stave off heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and even depression.

Eating a variety of nuts is definitely good for your heart, but remember to do so in moderation.

Swine flu may continue into 2011

Published
by
Jana
on January 2, 2010
in Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

The head of WHO, the World Health Organization, said that numerous amounts of people could become sick this winter with the H1N1 virus, even though it has reached it’s climax in North America and some European countries.

Dr. Margaret Chan believes that the worst part of the this outbreak is over for the United States, Canada, Britain and other countries in the northern hemisphere. She warned that there is still concentrated flu activity in Egypt, India and other countries. Having said this, she claims that it is too early to conclude that we are at the end of the pandemic influenza worldwide.

Chan maintains that health experts should monitor the pandemic for the next 6 to 12 months, because the virus could still mutate and become very dangerous.

Since the outbreak first started in April, over 11,500 people have died from the disease, according to WHO. Each year, there is between 250,000 and 500,000 people who die from the seasonal flu.

New smoking vaccine may help smokers quit by blocking nicotine

Published
by
Jana
on December 11, 2009
in Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

Many of us are familiar with the gums and patches that gradually wean smokers off cigarettes. Now there is a drug currently be tested that actually keeps the stimulant nicotine from getting to the brain.

Over the years people have tried an endless array of ways to quit smoking: from cold turkey, to counseling and even hypnosis. At the present time, a small company called Nabi Bio-pharmaceuticals of Rockville, Md., is anticipating to make a killing from their new vaccine that they hope will help millions to kick the habit. They are currently in the final stages of testing this innovative vaccine. Last week, major progress happened as they made a deal with the well known pharmaceutical Glaxo-SmithKline.

With this agreement, Glaxo-SmithKline will pay for the developing and marketing cost incurred with this new vaccine, called NicVax, if Nabi can successfully finish the Phase 3 trials that are now in progress.

In the past, the usual treatment for stopping a smoker’s dependence on nicotine has been by using gum or patches that contain decreasing amounts of the substance so that the addict is gradually weaned from their addiction to smoking.

After working on this vaccine for ten years, Nabi reveals a more direct approach to the smoking addiction problem. It actually closes off the nicotine’s access to the brain. While on NicVax, if a smoker lights up a cigarette, they will not feel any of the stimulating effects that they crave from nicotine. This works because NicVax causes the immune system to create antibodies that bond with the nicotine molecule if it gets into the bloodstream. The outcome is a molecule that is too big to pass to the brain. To put it briefly, the vaccine helps the body to become immune to nicotine.

The reasoning is that if smokers are not able to get the usual buzz from smoking a cigarette, there will be no incentive for them to stay with the habit. Also, because the antibodies that NicVax creates stay in the body for a long time, the chances for a smoker to go back to their bad habit are small. “It breaks the cycle of addiction” says Raafat Fahim, who is the president and chief executive  of Nabi.

The early and middle rounds of testing have been completed and the company expects to have the final results in the year 2011.