Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Childrens' Movies Setting a Bad Example

If you have children than you're used to watching children's movies. But some of those movies might be sending them the wrong message.

It looks like kids might be getting the wrong idea about unsafe behaviors from these movies.

The American Academy of Pediatrics just released a study looking at children's movies and how well those in the movies used safe behaviors like wearing seat belts and bicycle helmets. It turns out these movies aren't doing as well as you'd think.

They looked at G and PG rated movies and found that only around twenty five percent of bicyclists in those movies wore helmets and thirty five percent of pedestrians used crosswalks. But perhaps more concerning, seat belts were worn in only around one half of the scenes involving a vehicle.

The concern here is that children tend to copy what they see on TV and in the movies. And in these children's movies, the characters never had bad outcomes from their bad practices. So if kids see someone having fun and doing well without a bicycle helmet or a seat belt, their more likely to forget to use them as well. But for real life children the results can be devastating.

That doesn't mean to stop watching these types of movies. Instead use it as a great learning tool. Bring up the fact that someone isn't wearing a helmet or seat belt and explain why that's a very bad idea, even though it's a good movie.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Diet Pills

If you trying to lose weight with a diet pill you need to make sure you know where you get it from. One source could be selling you a dangerous fake.

It’s a fake form of the popular diet pill Alli. Unfortunately, these fake pills have ingredients in them that you don’t want to take.

Alli is an over the counter diet pill you can buy at most drug stores. The active ingredient in this pill is called Orlistat, which has been FDA approved as a weight loss pill that can be sold without a prescription. The medication is also sold over the internet, sometimes for a lower cost.

But this week the food and drug administration has issued a warning that some of the Alli pills sold on the internet can be bad for you health. That’s because pills they are warning about contain high levels of sibutramine. That’s the active ingredient in the prescription diet pill Meridia. But the fake Alli pills contain two times the maximum dose of the prescription Meridia pills. At this level, the pill could cause palpitations, anxiety and elevated blood pressure and sleeplessness, even in healthy adults.

The bottom line here is to make sure you know the source of any medications you put in your body. It’s always good to save a buck or two, but not at the risk of your own health.

For more information about the FDA warning, go to KRDO.com and click on the health tab.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Is TV really bad for you?

We all know that watching too much TV can lead to gaining weight but now it looks like it can also increase your chances of dying, even if you exercise every day.

It's not the TV watching that's bad for us but the sitting around while we do it causing the problems. and the solution might be as simple as hopping on a treadmill and walking while you watch.

We have known for a while that too much TV watching can increase your chances of becoming overweight mainly because it robs you of time to exercise. but researchers in Australia found even for those exercising thirty to forty five minutes a day, too much TV increased their chances of an early death.

These researchers followed the exercise and TV habits of over 8,000 people for six years. The surprise came when they discovered that the risk of dying from any cause, especially heart disease or cancer, went up with each daily hour of TV watched. as a matter of fact, watching two to four hours a day increased chances of dying by thirteen percent and watching over four hours a day by nearly fifty percent.

Experts think the reason this is happening, even in those that exercise, is because when you watch TV you just sit or lie down. and when you do that for hours on end, your body starts to process fats differently, affecting your health. As the experts put it, it's not the sweaty activity we're losing but the incidental moving around that helps us stay healthy. One tip, stand while watching, or better yet, just hop on the treadmill and slowly walk instead of just sitting in front to the tube.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Calorie Counts Not Adding Up

When you read a label to find out how many calories a particular food has you might not be getting the most accurate information.

It's not just restaurants but also some of the food items you buy at the grocery store---turns out, they have more calories in them than it says on the label.

First off, if you're trying to lose weight and are using calorie counting to help, congrats—that's one of the best ways to do it. But this latest news means you need to be even a little more careful. Researchers at Tufts University examined food items at both restaurants and frozen foods you can buy at a grocery store.

They purchases the items, took them to their lab and analyzed how many calories the items actually had. When they compared them to how many calories the menu or box said they had, they were surprised to find a big difference. Overall, the food items from restaurants had eighteen percent more calories than they were supposed to with some having four times as many, and frozen foods averaged eight times more calories.

These researchers are hoping this is a wake up call to food preparers to more accurately post calories numbers. But if your using their numbers now to diet, just realize you might be overshooting your goals, so you might need to cut back a little more to get the weight loss you want.