Tag-Archive for ◊ Health ◊

Celebrity endorsements
Author:
• Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Celebrity is one of these strange cultural things. People become famous, often for no particularly important reason except their ability to sing or play a sport well. It’s always been around. In ancient times, top warriors and “entertainers” would rule the cultural roost. Today, we seem less impressed by real soldiers, preferring the Hollywood version. Anyway, for better or worse, these people are able to use their fame to influence their fans – that’s one step away from fanatics whose intense enthusiasm leads them to dress and act in the same way. It becomes a kind of fame by association when you suddenly see people walking around wearing the latest styles shown on the pages of the influential magazines. Most of the time, this is fairly harmless. Manufacturers and distributors pay celebrities to endorse their products. The fans buy the products. If the products are good, everyone is happy. Sometimes the products are less than good and the celebrity’s name gets dragged through the mud. Although not quite on the same point, Paris Hilton is being sued again. This time, a hair extension company paid Hilton to wear its product but, remarkably, she turned up on red carpets wearing a competitor’s product. How sad for all involved given the names of the two competing products have now been trumpeted all over the news media for the last few weeks.

The most recent example is Justin Bieber. He’s the latest baby-faced, teen sensation to step out of YouTube. And, wherever you look, you see pictures of him. What great skin! But, like all sixteen year olds, he’s prone to the odd outburst of acne. So, moving with the cultural tide, one of the leading benzoyl peroxide products has recruited him as the new face of their anti-acne lotion. He follows in the tradition of Jessica Simpson, Alicia Keys, Katy Perry and others prepared to speak out in favor of this antibacterial. The marketing theory is solid like a rock. The target market buy his music and swoon over his picture. They will also want skin as smooth as his. They will buy this product. And, for the mild cases of acne, this will work out well. Benzoyl peroxide is a tried-and-tested way of dealing with skin problems. The addition of a moisturizer also leaves the skin feeling good.

But don’t get too carried away by endorsement. Justin Bieber may be the best new kid on the block, but the product will not deal with the more severe cases of acne. Indeed, if you use it for too long, moisturizers or not, it can cause the skin to dry and peel. For the really dramatic outbreaks that will not respond to any of the other treatments you need Accutane. Like benzoyl peroxide, there are side effects if you don’t follow the rules. But when you step up to the more powerful medications, you always take a risk to get the results. So, remember the name Accutane. It may not have the endorsement of Justin Bieber, but we think he would use it if he did get severe acne.

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Babies Become Anxious if Ignored
Author:
• Thursday, August 26th, 2010

They may have barely mastered sitting up by themselves. But six-month-old babies become stressed out when they don’t get the attention they feel they deserve.

Levels of the stress hormone cortisol soar when they are ignored by their mother, and even a day later they are worried about the same thing happening again.

A baby who is deprived of its mother’s love for just two minutes is anxious about being ignored again the next day, a study found. Experts in child development said that repeated episodes of stress could have a huge effect on a youngster’s health and on his or her course in life.

To investigate whether six-month-olds are capable of anticipating trouble, the Canadian researchers invited 30 mothers and babies into their laboratory and divided them into two groups.

Babies were placed in car seats and their mothers played with them and talked to them as normal. The play was then interspersed with two-minute periods in which the mother simply stared over her child’s head, keeping her face free of emotion.

The next day, she took her child back to the laboratory. Levels of cortisol were measured several times on both days. Amounts of cortisol shot up when the babies were ignored.

They then fell off, before rising again when the youngsters were taken back into the laboratory, despite them not being ignored on the second day.  A second group of babies went through the same process, but without being ignored at any time, and their hormone levels barely changed.

The findings suggest that being taken back into the laboratory led the youngsters who had been ignored to anticipate there being more trouble ahead, the journal Biology Letters reports.

Researcher Dr David Haley, of the University of Toronto, said: ‘The results suggest that human infants have the capacity to produce an anticipatory stress response that is based on expectations about how their parents will treat them in a specific context.’

Professor Jay Belsky, of Birbeck College, University of London, said factors such as depression could affect a mother’s relationship with her baby and send cortisol levels soaring time and time again.

This could lower a baby’s immune system, while a troubled upbringing may also mean the child going on to become a less than perfect parent itself.

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Dieting for the older woman
Author:
• Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

When people sit down to write about dieting, there’s a terrible temptation to assume everyone is the same. Well, that’s never going to give you the best outcome. So here’s some advice just for women who have been through the menopause. This can be a difficult time as one part of your life closes and another opens. There may be both physical and emotional adjustments to make. When it comes to your weight, there’s one very important issue to think about. One of the longer-term risks to your health is losing bone density as you age. Unless you take care, this can turn into osteoporosis with the risk you can fracture bones very easily if you take a knock or fall. The latest research shows you are more at risk if you aim to lose weight eating a high protein diet.

The researcher took two groups of women aged between 43 and 80, lowering their daily intake by 750 calories a day over a period of 12 weeks. In the first group, half were given a diet without meat, relying on a vegetarian and diary diet (with eggs) to supply protein. The others ate higher amounts of protein in a diet containing lean meats like chicken and pork (the meat representing 40% of the food eaten). Interestingly, both groups an average of 19 pounds, but the meat-eaters lost bone density faster than those on a vegetarian diet. So, given there was no significant difference in the amount of weight lost, the vegetarian diet was safer over the longer term.

In the second group, the women all ate a diet of 1,250 calories per day for 9 weeks. Everyone had the same 1,000 calories as a vegetarian diet. One quarter took the additional 250 calories as chicken breast, the second as 250 calories of lean tenderloin beef, the third as shortbread cookies and sugar-coated chocolates, the remainder added 250 additional calories of vegetarian food. Again, all the women lost weight, but the three groups lost bone density against the low-protein vegetarian group.

Both studies suggest the need to look carefully at the source of the proteins you eat. This is not something you should aim to decide yourself. Discuss with a nutritionist how best to lose weight while maintaining the quality of muscle and bone. This is not to say this research is conclusive. In fact, it’s quite controversial. The problem with the studies is the short period of time and the small numbers of participants. The limit of twelve weeks does not give a reliable guide. All it shows is a trend that might not last and represent a danger. Equally, although it’s interesting a small number of women had this problem, it’s no guide the same will happen to large numbers of women. Nevertheless, safety first. Take supplements if you have a high meat content in your diet. If you feel hungry when you start reducing the calorie intake, Phentermine is the ideal partner in your weight loss program. It suppresses your appetite and keeps your motivation high while your body is adjusting to a lower food intake. Always remember never to take Phentermine for too long. Although it’s excellent moral support for short periods of time, you do not want to grow dependent. The price of losing weight should not be problems with Phentermine.

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The Wrong Diet Makes You Look Older
Author:
• Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

You think the only errors in your diet are those that make you gain weight? Think again! Processed foods rich in sugar and fat do more than add a few inches on the waist and hips: they add extra years to your looks!

The next time someone wrong estimates your age (adding a few extra years), drop the pretzel or the cake you’re eating. Diet is the one that dictates the route of your body: everything from what your skin looks like, your bone density to how your brain functions. Thus, diet determines how fast the signs of aging appear.

Often, the solutions to “fix” a bad diet aren’t drastic, only measures that we might call “common sense”. Just get rid of some bad habits, among which the most dangerous ones are:

Number 1: Eating fast food

They call it fast food because it’s eaten on the run, when you’re out in the city, and you don’t need to prepare it. What you probably failed to notice is that the aging signs occur just as fast. Fat leads to inflammation and destruction of chromosomes: namely, aging rush to regenerate organs harder. In addition, they destroy the cell walls of folding, with serious effects on health and aging.

Although many restaurant chains and food manufacturers have been trying for years to stop using unhealthy fat when preparing their foods, it is best to be an informed consumer.

Eating at fast food should be avoided at all costs. When you’re at the restaurant, it is good to ask for a list of ingredients; read labels carefully before buying products at the supermarket. It is true that some ingredients have strange names, you do not know what to think of: usually you must avoid products containing “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated fats.”

Number 2: Stress-food

Eating at the office, in the car, on the road or in any other serious stress conditions harms your digestion. Adrenaline and cortisol released under stress make your blood accumulate in the extremities of your body (feet, hands) and not in the stomach and intestines, and their ability to process and absorb food is affected.

In addition, the stress changes the acidity in your stomach, also affecting the ability to absorb nutrients such as vitamin B12.

Furthermore, stress makes you not pay attention to how much you eat: chances are that you eat unconsciously, without observing that you have exceeded your limit. In general it is good to take a lunch break at work or go home for lunch so you can take your time while eating.

Number 3: Sweets addiction

The body has a limited capacity to absorb sugar: you could say it isn’t so, as some would eat sweets without stopping. The truth is that eating sugar in excess, sometimes even without being aware of it (in sodas,processed foods and other foods in commerce contain serious amounts of sugar) only overtax the body.

Excess sugar remains in the blood and causes problems, leading to slower ability to regenerate the body and to aging skin.Wrinkles appear faster, skin elasticity is lost and it can’t regenerate efficiently after trauma. Basically, consumption of sugar is like hitting the fast forward button for aging.

Candy lovers should know that natural products such as honey, maple syrup or sugar in fruits don’t have the same destructive effect as processed sugar.

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Employer insistence on weight loss
Author:
• Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Imagine that your boss tells you to lose weight. Why might this happen? There are two possible causes. For people suffering from excessive weight it can be physically difficult to do some work. There may also be issues over appearance. Not everyone fits into a uniform and looks good. Since many customers tend to judge the employer by the way the staff are presented, there’s pressure on employers to police the way you look. The second reason is pressure coming from the health insurance industry. It’s a statistical fact that the overweight are more likely to claim on health plans for longer term illnesses. This is forcing up premiums to employers but, to “help” those in financial difficulty, insurers are offering discounts if employers run wellness programs to incentivize their employees to lose weight. Allowing for many states allowing termination at-will, there are no real laws at a federal or state level to prevent discrimination on body weight. Unlike an injury leaving you partly paralyzed, the lawmakers say how much you weigh is a lifestyle decision and not a disability.

This problem is not restricted only to the US. For example in England people are fanatical about soccer. Benni McCarthy who should play for West Ham is overweight and has been told to lose about 12 pounds. The club will fine him about $60,000 out of his pay for every week he fails to lose 2 pounds. The club sees him through training, controls what he eats while at “work”, and then waves goodbye to him in the evening. If he’s not losing weight, it’s because of what he does out of sight. If we go over to Turkey, the state-run Turkish Airlines has suspended 28 flight attendants for being overweight. If these attendants, 15 of whom are men, do not get down to their target weights, they will be given work in the back office. In the meantime, they have no pay which will restrict the amount they can afford to eat and speed their weight loss.

So what would you do if your boss told you to lose weight? How much is your job worth to you? The Turkish flight attendants have been told to lose 10% of their body weight. They are finding it difficult to move easily up and down the aisles of the planes. By a strange coincidence, the clinical trials show participants losing an average of 10% of their body weight when using Acomplia. Would you diet and use an appetite suppressant to meet your boss’s expectations, or would you think this an interference with your private life and fight for your rights? Except, of course, your rights under the anti-discrimination laws are very limited. Even in a state which some protections against unreasonable termination, you may struggle to hold on to your job. So, it all comes back to a diet and Acomplia or giving up your paid work. Life can be really unfair.

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A Weekend Lie-in Can be Good for Your Health
Author:
• Friday, August 06th, 2010

Dragging a teenager kicking and screaming out of bed too early on a Sunday morning could be bad for their health. Scientists have shown that a weekend lie-in is more than lazy indulgence and could be vital for well-being.

Tests on volunteers showed that the occasional sleep-in provides an invaluable antidote to the harmful effects of sleep deprivation. The findings will be welcome by all those lucky enough to be able to enjoy an extra hour or two of slumber on Saturdays and Sundays.

It came as another study warned of the dangers of persistently sleeping too much  -  and showed that people who regularly get more than seven hours every day are putting themselves at risk of heart disease.

Dr David Dinges, of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia, who conducted the first study, said: ‘The additional hour or two of sleep in the morning after a period of chronic partial sleep loss has genuine benefits for continued recovery of behavioural alertness. The bottom line is that adequate recovery-sleep duration is important for coping with the effects of chronic sleep restriction on the brain.’

Inadequate sleep interferes with the way people think, handle stress and keep their emotions in check. It can also disrupt the immune system, increasing the risk of infection.

In the study, 142 adults with an average age of 30 were restricted to four hours in bed from 4am to 8am for five consecutive nights. At the end of the week, the volunteers were assigned to one of six ‘doses’ of a single night’s ‘recovery sleep’  -  ranging from zero to ten hours. Another 17 made up a comparison group who spent ten hours in bed nightly.

As expected, the test performance of the sleep deprived volunteers was consistently worse than that of the well-rested control group. But just one lie-in after a week of sleep deprivation improved mental faculties  -  and the longer the lie-in, the more alert they become.

However, even after ten hours in bed, sleep-restricted participants still had worse scores than the control group for attention lapses, poor reaction times, and fatigue.

Meanwhile, the second study showed that seven hours is the ‘perfect’ amount of sleep. Researchers at West Virginia University showed that sleeping fewer than five hours a day  -  including naps  -  doubles the risk of being diagnosed with angina, coronary heart disease, heart attack or stroke.

But sleeping more than seven hours increases the risks of cardiovascular disease too, the researchers found. Researcher Dr Anoop Shankar was unable to explain why length of sleep is linked to heart problems, but past studies have shown that sleep deprivation can increase blood pressure and diabetes.

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Your Brain Can Make You Fat
Author:
• Tuesday, August 03rd, 2010

It’s one of the most infuriating things in the world.

Your best friend devours cream cakes by the plateful without putting on weight, but you gain 3lb by glancing at a chocolate bar. Now scientists think they know why.

A study suggests that the ‘propensity for obesity’ may be hardwired into the brain while we are in the womb.

Its findings will be welcomed by the millions of us who have struggled to lose weight despite sticking rigidly to calorie-controlled diets.

Dr Tamas Horvath, of Yale University School of Medicine in the U.S., said: ‘It appears that this wiring of the brain is a determinant of one’s vulnerability to develop obesity.

‘These observations add to the argument that it is less about personal will that makes a difference in becoming obese, and, it is more related to the connections that emerge in our brain during development.’

Britain, like most Western countries, is in the grips of an obesity epidemic with the number of fat people rising sharply since the 1960s.

Dr Horvath and colleagues studied a group of laboratory rats bred to be vulnerable to obesity.

They found that these naturally greedy animals were born with a major difference in the ‘feeding center of the brain’.

Neurons in the brain that are supposed to signal when enough has been eaten and when the body needs to burn off calories are far more sluggish in obese rats because they are inhibited by other cells, the researchers report in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

However, in animals resistant to obesity, these same neurons are far more active – and quickly tell the rest of the brain and the body when enough food has been consumed.

The way the brain develops and whether it is vulnerable to obesity is influenced by genes and conditions in the womb, the researchers say.

Dr Horvath added: ‘Those who are vulnerable to diet-induced obesity also develop a brain inflammation, while those who are resistant, do not.

‘This emerging inflammatory response in the brain may also explain why those who once developed obesity have a harder time losing weight.’

In 1980, six per cent of men and eight per cent of women in Britain were obese.

Twenty years later, 22 per cent of men and 23 per cent of women are obese.

At least 20million people in this country are thought to be overweight, while 12million are clinically obese.

If the trends continue, one third of adults and half of all children will be obese by 2020.

Diet experts say the explanation for the wave of obesity is simple – that in an age of labor-saving devices and home entertainment, most people are doing too little exercise.

At the same time, high-fat, high-sugar foods are more widely available.

The new finding doesn’t explain why obesity is on the rise – but sheds light on why some people struggle to lose the extra pounds they get from a sedentary lifestyle.

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Communication Skill in Medicine
Author:
• Friday, July 30th, 2010

Factors which influence doctor-patient communication

  • The setting: requirements
  • Privacy
  • Comfortable surroundings
  • An appropriate setting arrangement

Factors which influence doctor-patient communication

  • Patient-related factors (patient’s feel at that time)
  • Physical symptoms
  • Psychological factors related to illness and/or medical care (e.g. anxiety., depression, anger, denial)
  • Previous experience of medical care
  • Current experience of medical care

Factors which influence doctor-patient communication

  • Doctor-related factors
  • Training in communication skills
  • Self-confidence in ability to communicate’personality
  • Physical factors (e.g. Tirdeness)
  • Psychological factors (e.g. Anxiety)

Factors which influence doctor-patient communication

  • Others
  • The patient’s beliefs about health and illness
  • The problem they wish to discuss
  • Their expectation of the doctor will do (often based on previous experience)
  • How they perceive the doctor

The setting of the inteview

  • In each case every effort should be made to provide a setting that facilitates communication
  • Privacy is essencial
  • Try to avoid interruptions and make sure that the lighting and temperature are as comfortable as possible
  • The arrangements of the seat
  • There are 3 possible setting (see pictures)
  • Try to drag a chair when we’re having consultation with the patient is on the bed. This would create the same “level”, so the patient wont feel threatened

Guideline for conducting an interview

  • Beginning the interview
  • Greet the patient by name and shake hands, if it seems appropriate
  • Ask the patient to sit down
  • Introduce yourself
  • Explain the purpose of the interview
  • Say how much time is available
  • Explain the need to take the notes and ask if this is acceptable

The main part of the interview

  • Maintain a positive atmosphere, warm manner, good eye contact
  • Use open question at the beginning
  • Listen carefully
  • Be alert and responsive to verbal and non ferbal cues
  • Facilitate the patient, both verbally and non-verbally
  • Use spesific questions when appropriate
  • Calrify what the patient has told you
  • Encourage the patient to be relevant

Ending the interview

  • Summaries what the patient has told you and ask if your summary is accurate
  • Ask if the would like to add anything
  • Thank the patient
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Pregnant Women Given OK to Drink A Coffee A Day
Author:
• Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Pregnant women need no longer give up their morning cup of coffee. A research review by The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists had found that moderate caffeine consmption probably won’t increase the risk of a miscarriage or premature
birth.

Until recently, studies have had conflicting findings about the effect of moderate caffeine consumption on pregnancy complications but a College committee has reviewed the evidence.

“I think it’s time to comfortably say that it’s OK to have a cup of coffee during pregnancy,” Dr. William Barth, the chair of the College committee, told Reuters Health. The College’s Committee on Obstetric Practice said that 200 milligrams of caffeine a day — about the amount in a 12-ounce cup of coffee — doesn’t significantly contribute to miscarriages or premature births.

That definition of “moderate caffeine consumption” would also include drinking about four 8-ounce cups of tea or more than five 12-ounce cans of soda a day, or eating six or seven dark chocolate bars. The committee said the evidence was not clear on whether consuming more than 200 mg of caffeine a day might increase pregnancy risks.

The group considered two recent studies, each of which followed more than 1,000 pregnant women. One study, led by Dr. David Savitz of The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, found no increased rate of miscarriage for women who consumed low, moderate, or high levels of caffeine at different points in their pregnancy.

In the other, Dr. De-Kun Li and his colleagues at Kaiser Permanente’s Division of Research in Oakland found a higher risk of miscarriage in women who consumed more than 200 mg of caffeine per day, but no extra risk at lower levels. The committee also pointed to two other studies that found that a mother’s moderate caffeine intake did not make it any more likely she would deliver a baby prematurely.

Research has shown that caffeine is able to cross the placenta, which led to worries that it could cause miscarriage or premature birth. In the United States, about 16 percent of all pregnancies end in miscarriage and about 12 percent of babies are born prematurely.

Barth said previous studies were mixed and unclear about the link between caffeine and pregnancy risks. It was the new findings from large groups of women that allowed the committee to feel confident that moderate caffeine intake was safe.

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Drinking-water and Health
Author:
• Sunday, July 04th, 2010

Introduction

The quality of drinking-water is a universal public health concern. Water is essential for life, but it can and does transmit diseases across countries in all continents – from the poorest to the wealthiest. It needs to be emphasized that access to safe water is a fundamental human need and is, therefore, a basic human right.

Potential Health Effects
Water is a common vehicle for the spread of pathogens, including bacteria, viruses and parasites, and other environmental health hazards. The most common diseases of this type are diarrhoeal diseases. Some of the more well-known examples of water-borne pathogens include Salmonella, Shigella, Campylobacter, Rotavirus, Enteroviruses and Giardia. The majority of illnesses caused by these pathogens are only moderately serious and frequently take the form of gastroenteritis with diarrhoea, abdominal pain or vomiting of short durations. They may affect several people or an entire community, depending on the quantity or type of pathogens present in the water. Infection may occur as a result of drinking the contaminated water directly or using it for washing or preparation of meals and drinks. Some chemical substances present in water as a result of natural processes are essential in maintaining good health, but some may be detrimental to health when they occur above certain concentrations. Fluoride, for example, is an important component in bone and tooth structure.. Too low a level of fluoride increases the incidence of dental caries, but an elevated level of fluoride causes mottling of the teeth as well as skeletal fluorosis.

To help in ensuring a safe and sustainable supply of drinking-water, the general public is advised to:

1. Conserve water, by observing the following:

  • don’t draw off more water than is required
  • take a shower instead of a bath
  • save the bath slops to wash the floor or water the pot plants
  • save for a bigger wash when using washing machine and dishwasher and cut down the rinse cycle
  • fix any dripping tap immediately
  • teach the children not to play with water

2. Cleanse the fresh water storage tanks in their buildings every three   months or more frequently if necessary

3. Refrain from installing any domestic water filters because they may become an ideal breeding ground for bacterial growths and constitute health hazards if they are not properly maintained.

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