Tag Archive for 'Prevention'

Diet may have strong affect on depression

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

Here’s yet another reason to listen to your mother when she says to make sure you eat your fruits and vegetables. A new study in the British Journal of Psychiatry has found that those who regularly eat fish, fruit, and vegetables decrease their chances for developing depression.

About 3,500 British civil servant’s diets were observed by scientists at London’s University College. Five years later they evaluated the individuals symptoms of depression. These researchers pointed out the beneficial effect of a whole-food healthy diet that seemed to protect those who consumed it. On the flip side, they found that those who ate a poor diet consisting of sweets, processed meats, fried food, refined cereals and high-fat dairy foods appeared to make them more vulnerable to depression.

The study drew attention to a link between diet and depression. This doesn’t necessarily mean that a poor diet definitely causes depression, but these results are compelling. So what is most likely giving the protection for good mental health? The researchers suggested a variety of possibilities. Maybe it could be the antioxidants in fruits and vegetables believed to protect cells from harm, the folic acid found in leafy greens that affects brain tissue, or the omega-3 fatty acids in fish that are found in specific brain membranes. Or they theorized that the benefits could be from a combination of all of these factors.

Kids are increasing their snack consumption

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

These days everybody is so busy that there is sometimes not enough time for sit-down meals. This is one of the main reasons that snacks have become so popular in our society, especially with kids. They are often snacking after school and on the way to activities such as soccer and tutoring sessions. These extra calories each week could add up to around 13 1/2 pounds of body fat a year. Snacks now account for more than 25 percent of the average kid’s daily intake.

This research displays just how prominently snacks have been a culprit in the weight problem among many of America’s children.

Public health officials have taken sodas and fatty and salty snacks out of our schools, but the food industry constantly keeps pushing snacks at us to continue to treat people in the U.S. as if we are always extremely ravenous.

The nation’s child obesity level has climbed to 16.4 percent in 2007 – a 10 percent increase since 2003. It seems that eating meals and drinking milk has decreased and eating fatty and salty foods is increasing. Since everyone is busy and snacks are often necessary to get through the day, parents need to try to find healthier alternatives for between meal snacks such as an apple or some yogurt.

The new study, which tallied the results from 31,337 children and adolescents to four federally funded food surveys, has revealed that in 1977, around 75 percent of kids age 2 to 18 ate at least one snack between meals. In 2006 the amount of kids who snacked rose to 98 percent.

The survey reports that kids’ daily caloric intake has risen by 100 calories since 1977. This escalation in snacking has thrust their average calorie intake to 2,099. In 2006, 27.3 percent of total calories, around 600 calories a day, came from snacks, according to the N.C. research team.

Also, calories eaten at mealtimes have started to decline a little since the last food survey was taken in 1994. Because of this, U.S. children are eating more fatty, sugary and salty foods and less of the dairy, protein and produce that is common at mealtimes.

Study finds that teen use of pot and alcohol is increasing

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

After ten years of declining, a new study has found that alcohol and marijuana use is on the rise. Sean Clarkin, director of strategy at The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, said that we have learned from the past that you usually see an increase in recreational drugs first and the harder stuff usually follows.

The  survey, which is done yearly, discovered that the amount of teens in grades 9 through 12 who said they drank alcohol in the past month rose 11 percent in the past year; with 39 percent reporting alcohol use, which is about 6.5 million teens.

Pot use among teens is up 19 percent. About 25 percent of teens said they smoked marijuana in the last month.

Until recently, these numbers for pot and alcohol use had been on a steady decline since 1998. At this time, use lingered around 50 percent for teens using alcohol and 27 percent for teens using pot.

In addition, the new study unfortunately discovered that teens using the party drug Ecstasy is on the rise. Six percent of teens interviewed admitted that they used Ecstasy in the last month, compared with 4 percent in 2008.

Clarkin said that if parents do suspect their teen might be using, they need to act swiftly. Try to watch them closely, talk to them about the danger of drugs, set rules and if necessary, and get outside help such as a counselor, doctor, clergy or other resource.

During the study researchers asked the teens how they felt about doing drugs or about the friends who did them. It was found that a higher percentage of teens than the last year said that they like being high and more friends said they had friends who often got high at parties. Also, less teens admitted that they would not hang out with kids who smoked pot.

MetLife Foundation sponsored the partnership’s “attitude tracking” study. Researchers in the study surveyed 3,287 teens in grades 9 through 12. Data was drawn from surveys that the teens completed from March to June 2009. The study has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.

The New York-based partnership is a nonprofit group that works to decrease illicit drug use.

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.

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.

Stretching found to be beneficial to the heart

Published
by
Jana
on November 4, 2009
in Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

We all know that any aerobic exercise is good for your heart and research has revealed that it can delay the hardening of arteries that often occurs during the aging process. New discoveries now indicate that flexibility may also have a positive effect on keeping the arteries healthy.

Your risk for getting heart disease and stroke may be able to be predicted from a basic flexibility test. The American Physiological Society has published a new study giving evidence to the fact that with women and men over the age of 40, the capability to touch one’s toes can reveal the hardness of the arteries.

Hardening of the arteries may increase blood pressure and is a huge factor in the cause of heart disease. Past research has shown us that aerobic exercise can assist in slowing the process of stiffening arteries as we age. Now researchers are discovering that staying flexible is definitely beneficial to the arteries.

New figures reveal swine flu is especially dangerous for children

Published
by
Jana
on October 10, 2009
in Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

On October 9, health officials reported that 76  children have died from the swine flu. This includes 16 new reports in the past week. This presents an ever increasing amount of evidence suggesting that this new virus, the H1N1, is unusually dangerous for children.

According to the CDC and Prevention Data, the seasonal flu kills between 46 and 88 children each year. At a press conference held Friday, October 9, Dr. Anne Schuchat said that since swine flu cases are rising, more deaths are very likely. She warned that 37 states are currently reporting widespread swine flu cases, which is up from 27 a week ago. Just one week ago, there were reports that indicated these cases might be leveling off and maybe even decreasing in some places of the U.S. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a short-lived trend.

Schuchat, who heads the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, says that they are unfortunately seeing more illnesses, hospitalizations, and more deaths.

All this said, the CDC officials report that states have ordered 3.7 million doses of swine flu vaccine for a campaign that started this week. So far, demand is outweighing supply. People who want the vaccine can begin by contacting their state or local health department to find out where to get it.

Also, health officials say more data is coming in from different clinical trials of the new vaccine, and there have been no serious side effects reported so far.

Early information from one study reveal that both seasonal and swine flu vaccines are effective when given at the same time. However, the government does not suggest that people get the nasal spray versions of each vaccine at the same time.

An exact report of all swine flu deaths and hospitalizations is not available from the CDC at this time, but current reports indicate that the infection has caused over 600 deaths and around 9000 or more hospitalizations since it first appeared in April.

BCBSNC says stick it to the flu

Published
by
Jana
on October 10, 2009
in BCBSNC and Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

Want to knock out your chances of getting the flu? Well, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) wants you to stick it to the flu by getting your flu shot. It is presenting this message through its Stick it to the Flu Campaign which will run through March.

As part of the campaign, BCBSNC will cover the cost of the seasonal flu vaccine for customers with preventive health benefits. A co-payment, deductible or coinsurance may be charged to some customers, depending on their specific benefits. BCBSNC is also suggesting that customers get the separate H1N1so vaccine, and the out-of-pocket costs will be waived for eligible customers.

Dr. Don Bradley, senior vice president and chief medical officer for BCBSNC, says that the flu shot is the best way to keep from getting the seasonal flu and transferring it to others. He says “We are making it easy for our customers to get their seasonal and H1N1 flu shots by simply visiting their primary care doctor, worksite clinic or participating pharmacist in the BCBSNC network.”

As with insured customers, BCBSNC issues health plans for companies and organizations that are self-insured (The employer pays BCBSNC to administer the plan). Employees of such self-insured companies can check with their supervisors or HR Department to determine how the seasonal and H1N1 vaccine will be paid.

BCBSNC, using guidance from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Prevention’s Advisory  Committee on Immunization Practices, has decided to cover the H1N1 vaccine. The Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has predicted extensive outbreaks this fall and winter.

When the H1N1 vaccine is available, BCBSNC customers have the option to go to their physician, in-network pharmacist or CVS Minute Clinic to get a H1N1 vaccine that will be covered. They advise customers to contact their provider to make sure that the vaccine is available.

It is strongly recommended that people get both vaccines to be completely protected against the seasonal and swine flu. These can be administered on the same day.  The 2009 H1N1 vaccine does not replace the seasonal flu vaccine. You must get each vaccine for the best protection.

The CDC says that those who are the first to get the H1N1 vaccine are pregnant women, people who live with or provide care for infants less than 6 months of age, heath care and emergency medical services workers, children and young adults ages 6 months to 24 years and adults ages 25 to 65 years with medical conditions that have put them at a higher risk for flu-related complications.

More than 100 million doses of the seasonal flu vaccine will be available this flu season, according to the CDC estimations. The U.S. government plans to have 6 to 7 million doses of the H1N1 vaccine in October and 250 million doses by the end of the year. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services reports that between 1000 to 2000 people die of seasonal influenza and pneumonia in North Carolina each year. The CDC estimates that more than 200,000 people are hospitalized with the seasonal flu every year and that there are 36,000 deaths from it yearly.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is a leader in advanced health care products, services and information to more than 3.7 million customers, which includes 900,000 served on behalf of other Blue Plans. The company has served its customers for 76 years by offering health insurance at a reasonable and competitive price and has served the people of North Carolina through support of community organizations, programs and events that support good health. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. You can access BCBSNC online at www.bcbsnc.com.

Ways to prevent H1N1

Published
by
Jana
on September 24, 2009
in Health and Wellness
. 0 Comments

With the constant fear of H1N1 symptoms, the following measures listed below
can be practiced by one and all.
Tamiflu does not kill but prevents H1N1 from further proliferation till the
virus limits itself in about 1-2 weeks (its natural cycle). H1N1, like other
Influenza A viruses, only infects the upper respiratory tract and
proliferates (only) there. The only portals of entry are the nostrils and
mouth/ throat.I In a global epidemic of this nature, it’s almost impossible
not coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions.
Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection,
in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development
of secondary infections, some very simple steps – not fully highlighted in
most official communications – can be
practiced (instead of focusing on how to stock N95 or Tamiflu):

1. Frequent hand-washing (well highlighted in all official communications).

2. “Hands-off-the-face” approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part
of face (unless you want to eat, bathe or slap).

3. Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don’t trust
salt). H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/ nasal
cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms.  Simple gargling
prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same
effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one.  Don’t
underestimate this simple, inexpensive and
powerful preventative method.

4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm
salt water.  Not everybody may be good at Jala Neti or Sutra Neti (very good
Yoga asanas to clean nasal cavities), but blowing the nose hard once a day
and swabbing both nostrils with cotton buds dipped in warm salt water is
very effective in bringing down viral population.

5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C (Amla
and other citrus fruits). If you have to supplement with Vitamin C tablets,
make sure that it also has Zinc/bioflavonoids to boost absorption.

6. Drink as many warm liquids as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the
same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off
proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot
survive, proliferate or do any harm.

All these are simple ways to prevent, within means of most households, and
certainly much less painful than to wait in long queues outside public
hospitals.