Thursday, July 29, 2010

Preventing The Freshmen 15

It's time to pack up and send your freshman off to college. Just make sure when they return, they haven't packed on the pounds.

It's called "The Freshmen 15". It's pretty common and named this because a lot of college freshmen tend to gain 15 pounds or more in this first year. But by being aware of how it happens, you can help them keep off this unwanted weight.

As they start learning how to live on their own, getting along with new people, and keeping up with classes, they're going to be feeling some stress. And in stressful situations, guess what? A lot of us comfort ourselves with food, and that can cause our freshman to put on the pounds. So, try and convince them that instead of reaching for pizza or ice cream to relax, go for a walk and then get back to work. They'll be surprised at how much this will help keep the stress down.

And you know, college is also a very social environment. But often the college scene includes food, and not all of it healthy. Remind them that when they're studying late at night with friends, instead of going after the chips and dips, reach for healthier snacks like fruit and veggies. Convince them to plan ahead and store healthy snacks in the room, so they have them when it's munchies time.

Lack of exercise also helps add the pounds. Although most high school seniors tend to be fit with sports and other activities, college freshmen slow down as they spend more time studying and working. Eating right and exercising can go a long way to maintaining weight. A few gentle reminders about this during those special phone calls home might help them keep slim and trim all year.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

New Head Lice Recommendations

Nothing strikes fear in the hearts of a parent like head lice. But recommendations on how to treat them are changing.

Believe it or not, the biggest new recommendation is to not keep your kids at home if they do get head lice.

For a parent, there isn't anything much worse than getting that call from the school nurse letting you know your child has lice in their hair. Not only do you have to treat them to get rid of the little bugs, but you also need to call the parents of any other kids they played with to let them know. And it used to be you'd keep them out of school until the lice were gone. But the American Academy of Pediatrics just released new guidelines, and the biggest change is a strong stance against school screenings for lice and as they put it "no healthy child should be excluded from or allowed to miss school time because of head lice."

Contrary to what many parents believe, lice infestations are not a sign of dirty hair or poor hygiene. Anyone can get lice. But pediatric experts also feel that with new treatments and a better understanding of the problem, keeping kids out of school isn't necessary. They also emphasis that homemade treatments, including bleach, acetone and even wd-40 applied to the hair cause way more harm than good.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Live Longer, Stand Up

Do you want to live a longer, healthier life. Maybe standing more is your answer.

It looks like the more you stand the less likely you are to die early. Or, to put it more correctly, the more you sit, the greater risk you have of an earlier death.

Decades ago, hardly anyone sat all day long. But now we sit to go to work, then sit at work all day long, then sit to get back home. And once we're home, we sit to watch TV.

Now it looks like all that sitting is taking it's toll.

The American Cancer Society studied over 50,000 men and women to find out how long they sat during the day and compared that to how long they lived. Researchers found the magic numbers were 3 and 6. If you spent more than 6 hours a day of your leisure time sitting, you significantly increased your chances of dying earlier than those sitting less than 3 hours.

The thinking is that sitting decreases your overall physical activity and can affect your metabolic function during the day----that can increase your chances of an early death. To make things even a little bit more concerning, this study only looked at hours sitting outside of work. So, adding hours at a desk might even make things a little worse.

So when you can, stand up, or better yet, walk around. That could make all the difference in the world.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

No More Yearly Flu Shots?

Flu season is still months away but vaccine makers are already in full production mode. Soon yearly flu shots might be a thing of the past.

The flu shot is a yearly routine we all go through. The virus causing the flu mutates and changes just enough each year so that last years shot won't work. But every year experts have to take an educated guess what types of flu might be here in the following winter. Sometimes they get it right and sometimes they don't. But now the goal of a universal flu vaccine—one that will cover all strains of the flu and might only need to be given every decade or maybe even once a lifetime—is closer to reality.

Scientists have found a two step approach that allows a vaccine to cover all strains of the flu, not just the traditional 3 the shot covers every year. They were able to use a DNA primer which pumped up the immune system followed by a traditional flu vaccine. This combination proved very effective at covering different types of flu from years past.

Although this is still just an early start, it's crosses a big hurdle that scientists have been working on for some time. The hope is from here they will be able to get that universal vaccine—then maybe lining up every year for your flu shot might become a thing of the past.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Wearing High Heels

If you frequently wear high heels there is something you might need to do before putting on your flats.

It might be something you noticed in the past. You often wear high heels and find it can be a little painful when you wear flats or walk around bear footed. For years doctors have felt that frequently wearing high heels could lead to a shortening of the muscles in the back of the leg and this shortening could be causing the pain when you switch to flats. But they were never able to prove it until now.

Scientist looked at the calf muscles of women that frequently wore heels. An MRI scan showed no difference in calf muscles between them or those who mostly used flats. But when they examined those same muscles with an ultrasound they found shorter muscle fibers in the women who mostly wore high heels.

They also noticed these same women had thicker and stiffer tendons behind their heels. This combination is why it can be painful to switch to flats or even walk around without shoes if you've been wearing heels for a while. But there are things you can do to help. One is to alternate flats and heels when you can. The other is to do calf and heel stretches in your bear feet during the day, especially on days you wear heels. The main thing is to make sure fashion doesn't become painful.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Lucky Charms

If you have something important coming up, like a company presentation, you might want to take your lucky charm along with you.

Lucky rabbit's foot, special coin, old t-shirt. Many of us have some type of lucky object. But, does having these really do any good? According to a new series of studies, it looks they might actually help you perform better.

One group of researchers noticed star athletes frequently had lucky shirts or shorts, or didn't shave so they could carry a lucky beard during playoffs. So they set out to see if that type of thing worked. They asked a group of volunteers to bring in a lucky charm and give them up to be photographed. They only returned the charm to half of the group. Then they had them take a computerized memory test. The ones with lucky charms did much better.

Other researchers found something similar---people doing better when they had their lucky charm with them, or when they were told “good luck” before a task.

Although this technique isn't foolproof, scientist believe that having some type of “lucky Charm” with them gives people a little bit of confidence in whatever they are doing. And that confidence helps them do better. So next time you have an important presentation to give, or need to ask for a raise or promotion, stick your lucky charm in your pocket. It might help give you that slight edge.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Parents & Weight Gain

If you’ve put on a few pounds over the years, you might want to blame your kids.

It probably doesn’t come as any big surprise to any parent, but having kids means you don’t exercise nearly as much as you need to---and that means over the years you put on the pounds. But how much this affects you might be the big surprise.

As part of the Gallup-Healthways Well Being Index survey, nearly 60,000 Americans were interviewed about how often they exercised. It turns out that if they have an under 18-year-old child in the house, then they don’t exercise very much. And 28% of the parents surveyed said they don’t really exercise at all. Again, it probably won’t surprise any parent much that the ones least likely to exercise had kids under 4-years-old in the house.

But this was having an impact on the parent’s health. One-in-four of them reported being obese and over 35% overweight. This was more than parents without children in the home.

So what does this mean, are kids bad for your health? No. But as any parent will tell you, they do occupy a great deal of your time. The secret is to make exercise one of your priorities and involve the kids if you can, especially as they get older. This will do two things. One, keep you in good health, and two, get your kids to realize how important exercise is to overall health.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Coughing & Sneezing Correctly

We all know to cover up when we cough and sneeze, but how many of us actually do that?

It turns out a lot of us are covering up but most of us aren't doing it right. And by not doing it right, we are helping spread the cold and flu.

This study was done in New Zealand, were medical students had the unenviable task of sitting at a train station, shopping mall and hospital, watching people sneeze and cough. They did this during the swine flu pandemic, right when everyone was telling us to cover up when coughing and sneezing.

The good news is that most people, three out of four, at least tried to cover up to help prevent their germs from flying around. But the bad news is that, again most of them, three out of four, used their hands to do it.

And the problem is when you use your hands, instead of the inside corner of your elbow, you spread the virus to your hands. Then anything you touch after that---a doorknob or computer keyboard--- gets contaminated with that virus and can spread to others.

So, the goal here is to keep up the good work of covering up during a cough or sneeze but instead of using a hand, use your elbow or even a tissue then make sure you wash your hands.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Glaucoma

As the population gets older more of us need to consider getting regular eye exams.

That's because glaucoma is one of those things you might not know you have until it's too late.

Around 4 million Americans suffer from glaucoma and it causes around 10 percent of the blindness in this country. What usually happens with this disease is the pressure inside the eye starts to build up. Over time, this build up in pressure pushes on the optic nerve at the back of the eye and that starts the process of vision loss.

The problem is that this usually goes unnoticed until a majority of the vision has been permanently lost. But a simple eye exam can find glaucoma early on, and the earlier it's found the easier it is to treat. The group Prevent Blindness America recommends a dilated eye exam every two to four years once you hit 40 and every one to two years if you're 65 or older.

The important thing is to get any glaucoma detected and to start treatment as early as possible so you can avoid what experts call “the sneak thief of sight” Like one expert puts it, you get your teeth examined just about every year, but not your eyesight. Would you rather loose your teeth or your vision?

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Later School Start Times

Later school starting times for teenagers could improve their performance.

We're talking about letting them sleep in just an additional 30 minutes. That can help teens in more ways than just with better grades.

It might seem a little odd to talk about a school subject in July, but a new study was just released looking at a small experiment that pushed back school starting time for teens. The results, published in this month's Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, were pretty amazing.

Researchers convinced a small boarding school in Rhode Island to delay high school start times from 8 to 8:30. At first many parents and teachers were reluctant to go along, but after the late start time began, the results were so impressive they made the change permanent.

First period tardiness fell by almost half and students reported feeling less depressed or irritated. Health center visits dropped substantially and the number of hot breakfasts served more than doubled, meaning more students were getting a healthy start to their day.

Other studies have shown similar results from later teen start times including better academic performance. Part of the reason is the teens' biological clock. They don't really start getting tired until 11 pm or later and are still in their deepest sleep around dawn, when most of them have to wake up to go to school.
So by delaying that wake up by half an hour school-wide, they getting much more out of school.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Sweets & Blood Pressure

You might think about cutting out the sweets to drop a pound or two but how about cutting them out to improve your blood pressure?

We all take in plenty of sweets and these days more people are battling with high blood pressure—well now the two might actually be connected.

Over the last one hundred years or so the number of people with high blood pressure has tripled. The number of products with fructose sweeteners has also gone up dramatically during the same time. So researchers decided to see if the two were connected. After interviewing over 4,000 adults, here's what they found. On the average, adults consumed 74 grams of fructose per day, or the equivalent of 2 and ½ soft drinks every single day. About one third of those surveyed also had borderline blood pressure and eight percent had high blood pressure with values above 140 over 90.

The connection comes from the fact those consuming the most fructose were also more likely to have high blood pressure. And this might account for part of the reason blood pressures have risen dramatically over the last century.

Of course, it's hard to make a direct connection between the two and the Corn Refiners Association, a US trade group representing sweetener refiners, says this is a flawed study to begin with. But cutting out sweets is something most of us need to do anyway and that might also help keep your blood pressure under control.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Cartoons & Food

Can a cartoon really make food taste better? It can if you're a kid.

Anyone with kids has been there, watching your child through a grocery store tantrum over a food box with a cartoon character on it.

Now researchers have confirmed what most of us probably thought. A study out of Yale University found that, to children at least, food that's marked with cartoons tastes better.

In this study 40 children were asked to do a taste test on three different food items---gummy snacks, graham crackers and baby carrots. One bite came from a plain package and one bite came from a similar package but with a cartoon character on the front label.

Although both packages held the exact same snack, children consistently said food from the cartoon labeled box tasted better. And this was especially true for high sugar foods like the gummy snacks.

The researchers involved in this study point out that here in the U.S. the food industry spends a great deal of money on cartoon food labeling---and should probably be restricted to a system like the UK where food has to meet a certain nutritional standard before it can be marketed to kids.

Meanwhile, it's up to parents to realize just how much these "simple" cartoon characters can affect kids choices and remember---it's alright to say no.