Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Whooping Cough

Although it might sound like something from decades ago, California is currently having a whooping cough outbreak.

Depends on how old you are and your health, but for infants, it can be fatal.

Unfortunately that is happening right now in California, where this year alone, they have over 900 cases of whooping cough, which goes by the medical name pertussis. The worse news is that 5 infants have died from it.

Whooping cough hasn't been in the news much lately although there have been outbreaks from time to time across the country. Prior to the mid 40's, when a vaccine became available, there where hundreds of thousands of cases every year and it was a major cause of infant death. After the vaccine came into use, the number of infections dropped until 1975 but since then have continued to climb.

For an adult or teenager, whooping cough might only resemble the common cold, but if they pass it on to a child under one year of age, it can be fatal. One reason for the increase in cases, according to experts, is the rise in the number of parents not getting children their vaccinations along with adults who had the pertussis vaccination needing a booster shot.

Right now the new tetanus vaccine, called the TDAP, contains a part to protect from the whooping cough. And since we all need a tetanus shot at least every ten years, it's a good time to add the pertussis part.

Protecting yourself will also help protect young kids you come into contact with and hopefully keep this outbreak from spreading.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Reusable Grocery Bags & Your Health

If you use reusable grocery bags---you're helping save the environment, but you might also be putting your families health at risk.

It's because they could be harboring bacteria that could cause food poisoning. But the solution is simple.

Researchers from the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University found out two different things in their new study. They asked shoppers heading into grocery stores if they washed their reusable bags and found that the vast majority---97 percent don't. Plus, about two-thirds of them don't use separate bags for meat and vegetables.

Then they took 84 of the bags and tested them. All but one of the bags had large amounts of bacteria with half of them having coliform bacteria---which can come from raw meat---and 12 percent had ecoli. For comparisons sake they also tested new reusable bags and didn't find any bacteria on them. That means the bacteria they found in the used ones most likely comes from the food you place in them at the grocery store.

But the solution is simple. These researchers found that cleaning the bags in your washer and drier completely gets rid of the bacteria. And that's their recommendation, to wash those bags after using them, that way you can help save the earth and keep your family safe at the same time.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Portion Control

It seems like everybody is on some type of diet or another, but none of them seem to work very well. But there might be an easier way to lose weight.

It's simple, easy and cheap but something most of us don't do---portion control. And the big tip here is to change the size of your plates.

Do me a big favor, go measure the size of your dinner plates. Chances are they are 10 or 12 inches across. And in a restaurant, they are most likely 12 to 14 inches wide. If your parents or grandparents have any plates left over from the 1960's they'll probably measure 8 to 10 inches. The point is that plate size has increased over the years and that means portion size has gone up as well. That increase in portion sizes is what's helping pack on the pounds. So by simply changing out to smaller 8 inch plates you'll lose weight.

Here's why. We tend to stop eating based on what are called external factors---in other words, we eat until our plate is clean when we should only be eating until we start to feel full. And researchers have found that we'll do the same with smaller plates but since the portion sizes are smaller we tend to eat less. It's a cheap way to trick our brains into cutting back on how much we eat and a great way to start shedding pounds.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

What You Get From Coffee

THAT QUICK PICK-ME-UP FROM YOUR MORNING CUP OF COFFEE... MAY NOT BE DOING WHAT YOU THINK IT'S DOING.

WHAT YOU'RE GETTING FROM COFFEE... REALLY DEPENDS ON HOW MUCH YOU DRINK.

IF YOU DRINK A LOT OF COFFEE... THAT FIRST CUP IN THE MORNING PROBABLY ISN'T GIVING YOU THE CAFFEINE BOOST YOU'RE LOOKING FOR... IT MIGHT JUST BE CORRECTING A CAFFEINE WITHDRAWAL YOU'RE HAVING.

IT'S ALL PART OF A NEW STUDY IN THE JOURNAL "NEUROPSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY"...
SCIENTISTS LOOKED AT PEOPLE WHO DRINK COFFEE ROUTINELY... AND THOSE WHO DON'T.

SOME WERE GIVEN CAFFEINE TABLETS... SOME WERE GIVEN PLACEBOS. THEN THE PEOPLE IN THE STUDY WERE GIVEN A SERIES OF TESTS EXAMINING THEIR MEMORY, ATTENTIVENESS AND VIGILANCE...
AND GUESS WHAT? THERE WAS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE GROUP GIVEN THE CAFFEINE TABLETS... AND THE ONE THAT ONLY HAD THE PLACEBO.

SO HERE'S WHAT THEY THINK IS GOING ON... ESPECIALLY WITH THAT FIRST MORNING CUP... WHEN REGULAR DRINKERS GO WITHOUT COFFEE OVERNIGHT...

THEIR BODIES START TO GO THROUGH CAFFEINE WITHDRAWAL. THAT COMES WITH SIDE-EFFECTS THAT GIVE YOU HEADACHES AND MAKES YOU LESS ALERT. WHEN YOU GET YOUR FIRST COFFEE OF THE DAY... YOU GET A SMALL BOOST... BUT ONLY ENOUGH TO BRING YOU BACK TO THE LEVEL YOU'D BE AT IF YOU DIDN'T DRINK COFFEE AT ALL.

SO IF YOU DRINK A WHOLE LOT OF COFFEE... YOU MIGHT NOT BE DOING YOURSELF ANY FAVORS... ESPECIALLY WITH THAT FIRST WAKE-UP DRINK.
AGAIN, MODERATION IS KEY.

Early Morning Workouts

When it comes to burning fat, getting out first thing in the morning might be the key.

Why early morning? Because it looks like exercising before eating breakfast could help burn fat.

When we work out, we are trying to both keep our heart in good shape and look better. That means doing what you can to lose body fat. According to this latest study, one key might be holding off breakfast until after you get your workout in.

In this study, researchers found those subjects that hadn't eaten before exercising burned a higher percentage of fat versus carbohydrates. Scientists think this has to do with the fact our bodies, when you exercise after fasting, have high adrenaline and low insulin. This ratio forces our muscles to break down more fatty acid.

The researchers involved in this study recommend exercising before breakfast in particular because once you eat it takes up to six hours to get back to the same level you were before breakfast.

Although this method might have you burn more fat, there are some things to keep in mind. Number one, most experienced athletes will only do this once per week, if at all---since it can be tough---but even that amount gives you fat burning benefits. And secondly, you need to realize that even though you're burning more fat---you're training will probably suffer since you won't have the energy for a tough workout. Plus, you need to remember not to gorge on food after exercising even though you'll probably be extra hungry---that would only defeat the purpose of what you are trying to accomplish in the first place.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Hot Flashes & Antidepressants

A drug commonly used to treat depression might help with hot flashes as well.

As a matter of fact, in this new study, hot flashes were cut in half when women used an antidepressant.

Hot flashes affect most women going through menopause. For some it's an inconvenience, but for others they can be so frequent and severe they can affect their lifestyle. Not all menopause symptoms need treatment but if it is needed there are a variety of options, including hormone therapy. Because of health risks, that's being used less often.

This new study, just published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, looked at the antidepressant citalopram, often sold under the brand name Celexa. Researchers found that in the 254 women tested, hot flash frequency and severity declined by 50 percent after using the medication for six weeks. They also found the lowest of three doses was as effective as the highest dose. Although other antidepressants in the same class as citalopram, known as SSRI's, have been shown to reduce hot flashes, researchers involved in the study felt this medication in particular had some advantages in that it could be given with medications like tamoxifen---used for breast cancer treatment-- and could be effective at low doses. And since breast cancer treatment and menopause can both be sources of hot flashes, medications like this antidepressant that can be taken along with on-going breast cancer treatments, can be a helpful tool.