A nice white smile is one reason for a visit to the dentist. But you might also want to visit one before you become pregnant.
It's because that visit might keep you from having a premature baby.
Gum disease has been linked to an increase risk of heart problems and other diseases. But now it looks like that same issue might also increase a pregnant woman's chances of having an early birth.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania looked at women who were between 6 and 20 weeks pregnant and focused in on the health of their teeth and gums. All of the women had some amount of gum disease and were treated. One third of the treatments were successful. Those whose treatment weren't successful also ended up being significantly more likely to give birth before 35 weeks. And since having a preemie can also mean more health problems for the baby, this study, according to the researchers involved, highlights a connection between mom's gum disease and an unborn babies health.
Other experts say the connection between the two hasn't been firmly established yet and that further research is needed. In the meanwhile, getting a dental checkup early in the pregnancy still might be one key to having a healthy child.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Calcium
We're talking about getting more calcium, one trick that may add years to your life.
Calcium is essential for our health but most people simply recognize it as something we need to keep bones strong, especially for women. And for men, the government recommends 1,000 milligrams a day if your 19 to 49 and 1,200 milligrams if your older.
But Swedish researchers wanted to find out if calcium might be more important for men than just to keep their bones strong. So they looked at over twenty thousand between the ages of 45 and 79 to see if calcium might actually help keep them living longer. After following them for ten years they found the ones consuming the most calcium in their diets also ended up having a lower chance of dying by the end of the study. Those same men ended up getting upwards of 2,000 milligrams of calcium a day, nearly double of the recommended daily allowance.
The men in this study got calcium from their diet so it's hard to tell if supplements will work the same way. And like all medications, herbs or supplements, there are side effects to taking too much calcium, and it can interfere with other medications so check with your doctor before adding more to your daily routine.
Calcium is essential for our health but most people simply recognize it as something we need to keep bones strong, especially for women. And for men, the government recommends 1,000 milligrams a day if your 19 to 49 and 1,200 milligrams if your older.
But Swedish researchers wanted to find out if calcium might be more important for men than just to keep their bones strong. So they looked at over twenty thousand between the ages of 45 and 79 to see if calcium might actually help keep them living longer. After following them for ten years they found the ones consuming the most calcium in their diets also ended up having a lower chance of dying by the end of the study. Those same men ended up getting upwards of 2,000 milligrams of calcium a day, nearly double of the recommended daily allowance.
The men in this study got calcium from their diet so it's hard to tell if supplements will work the same way. And like all medications, herbs or supplements, there are side effects to taking too much calcium, and it can interfere with other medications so check with your doctor before adding more to your daily routine.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Sunburned While Skiing
This might seem like a strange winter topic, but if you've ever gotten sunburned skiing, you know what we're talking about.
The common mantra for years has been to use a sunscreen of spf 15 or higher to prevent that burn. And preventing the burn is important to avoiding skin cancer. But as just about anyone around here can tell you, even if you lather on the spf 15 sunscreen, you still might end up a bit red. Here's why---our altitude is too high for just an spf 15 sunscreen---it looks like you might even need something as strong as 70+ to get good protection.
Researchers were trying to find out if our high altitude and sun exposure also meant that some sunscreens might not work as well as we thought they would. They took golfers at Vail and ski instructors at Aspen and applied different levels of sunscreen to different halves of their face. A low spf was placed on one side and a higher spf on the other. It turns out the low SPF side wasn't protected enough to prevent a sunburn.
The low spf sunscreens that didn't do enough to protect from a burn included those sunscreens with an SPF 50 level or lower. According to these researchers, since we get a more intense sun exposure because of our high altitude, you might want to make sure you put on the higher level sunscreens---those with an spf of at least 70---to get the best protection.
The common mantra for years has been to use a sunscreen of spf 15 or higher to prevent that burn. And preventing the burn is important to avoiding skin cancer. But as just about anyone around here can tell you, even if you lather on the spf 15 sunscreen, you still might end up a bit red. Here's why---our altitude is too high for just an spf 15 sunscreen---it looks like you might even need something as strong as 70+ to get good protection.
Researchers were trying to find out if our high altitude and sun exposure also meant that some sunscreens might not work as well as we thought they would. They took golfers at Vail and ski instructors at Aspen and applied different levels of sunscreen to different halves of their face. A low spf was placed on one side and a higher spf on the other. It turns out the low SPF side wasn't protected enough to prevent a sunburn.
The low spf sunscreens that didn't do enough to protect from a burn included those sunscreens with an SPF 50 level or lower. According to these researchers, since we get a more intense sun exposure because of our high altitude, you might want to make sure you put on the higher level sunscreens---those with an spf of at least 70---to get the best protection.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Is Coffee Good or Bad for your Health?
If you’re grabbing that morning cup of coffee right now but wondering if it’s good for your health or not, you now have less to worry about.
I think the big finding is that it’s not bad for your health, especially
the heart, but needs to be used in moderation.
And not being bad for your health, you have to remember, isn’t necessarily the same thing as being good for your health.
Studies just presented at the American Heart Association annual conference showed both some good and not so good points about coffee drinking. On the good side, researchers found that those who drank four cups a day also had a smaller chance of being hospitalized for a heart arrhythmia. And female coffee drinkers even cut their chances of getting type 2 diabetes by over 50 percent, mainly because of the caffeine in the coffee.
But again, not all the news was good. Researchers did find a potential link between coffee and high blood pressure. So I think the bottom line is that coffee isn’t something you want to treat like a medicine but at the same time it appears that drinking it in moderation, even when it has caffeine, won’t hurt your health.
I think the big finding is that it’s not bad for your health, especially
the heart, but needs to be used in moderation.
And not being bad for your health, you have to remember, isn’t necessarily the same thing as being good for your health.
Studies just presented at the American Heart Association annual conference showed both some good and not so good points about coffee drinking. On the good side, researchers found that those who drank four cups a day also had a smaller chance of being hospitalized for a heart arrhythmia. And female coffee drinkers even cut their chances of getting type 2 diabetes by over 50 percent, mainly because of the caffeine in the coffee.
But again, not all the news was good. Researchers did find a potential link between coffee and high blood pressure. So I think the bottom line is that coffee isn’t something you want to treat like a medicine but at the same time it appears that drinking it in moderation, even when it has caffeine, won’t hurt your health.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Strokes on the Rise in the Young
Strokes are on the rise in one segment of the population, young people.
For years strokes have been thought of as a problem that gets worse as we get older. But even though we didn't use to think they affected younger adults, that's the one group were the number of strokes are actually going up. And that's raising alarms in the medical community.
Recently a lot of effort has been placed on preventing strokes. The message has gotten out—controlling high blood pressure and cholesterol, exercising regularly, and stopping smoking are your best bets to keeping your risk of having a stroke as low as possible But this message has been mainly targeted at us as we get older. And it's worked! The rates of strokes in the elderly have improved over the last few years.
But a new group, surprising some experts, is actually showing an increase in strokes! Since 1993, there's been a rise in stroke victims younger than 45. Experts think it's because prevention messages haven't been targeted to this age group, but are hoping that will change soon. And they say the message is the same, whether you're 40 or 80. Exercise, eat well and quit smoking. Hopefully this message for all groups will cut everyone's chances of a stoke over the next few years.
For years strokes have been thought of as a problem that gets worse as we get older. But even though we didn't use to think they affected younger adults, that's the one group were the number of strokes are actually going up. And that's raising alarms in the medical community.
Recently a lot of effort has been placed on preventing strokes. The message has gotten out—controlling high blood pressure and cholesterol, exercising regularly, and stopping smoking are your best bets to keeping your risk of having a stroke as low as possible But this message has been mainly targeted at us as we get older. And it's worked! The rates of strokes in the elderly have improved over the last few years.
But a new group, surprising some experts, is actually showing an increase in strokes! Since 1993, there's been a rise in stroke victims younger than 45. Experts think it's because prevention messages haven't been targeted to this age group, but are hoping that will change soon. And they say the message is the same, whether you're 40 or 80. Exercise, eat well and quit smoking. Hopefully this message for all groups will cut everyone's chances of a stoke over the next few years.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Snacks and Childhood Obesity
When it comes to fighting childhood obesity, it might not be the meals they eat we need to worry about, but the snacks.
Because as much as kids as snacking these days, it's almost like they are constantly eating , and that's the problem. Just about everyone's heard it by now, childhood obesity is a continuing problem and experts point to plenty of reasons why it's happening and how to fix it. But this new group of researchers has found the amount of snacking kids do during the day can be part of it. After looking at the eating habits of over thirty thousand children they found a large amount of snacking---meaning foods eaten outside of regular meals. On the average, the kids in the study ended up snacking around three times per day and this snacking totaled over one fourth of the calories they eat in a given day. And the main choice?---salty snacks and sweets.
Although this might only add around 100 calories a day to their diet, if you think about that's over 35,000 extra calories a year. That can pile on the pounds. So you best bet is to get rid of the tempting snacks in your pantry and think twice about what you put in their lunch. An occasional snack every now and then isn't necessarily bad, you just want to make sure they aren't eating something all day long.
Because as much as kids as snacking these days, it's almost like they are constantly eating , and that's the problem. Just about everyone's heard it by now, childhood obesity is a continuing problem and experts point to plenty of reasons why it's happening and how to fix it. But this new group of researchers has found the amount of snacking kids do during the day can be part of it. After looking at the eating habits of over thirty thousand children they found a large amount of snacking---meaning foods eaten outside of regular meals. On the average, the kids in the study ended up snacking around three times per day and this snacking totaled over one fourth of the calories they eat in a given day. And the main choice?---salty snacks and sweets.
Although this might only add around 100 calories a day to their diet, if you think about that's over 35,000 extra calories a year. That can pile on the pounds. So you best bet is to get rid of the tempting snacks in your pantry and think twice about what you put in their lunch. An occasional snack every now and then isn't necessarily bad, you just want to make sure they aren't eating something all day long.
Monday, March 1, 2010
A Secret the Athletes Have Been Using for Years
Want to work out but never seem to have the time?
It's a secret the elite athletes have been using for years but researchers weren't sure the average person would be able to do, until now. We're talking about intense interval training, and they say you can get a weeks
worth of workouts in just one hour.
We've all been there, you want to work out but got home to late from the office, or had too much to do that day. So the workout suffered and you never ended up exercising.
Well, for years researchers have known that interval training can help elite athletes compete but were afraid that it would be too hard for most of us---that we simply wouldn't be able to stand how intense those workouts really are. But recent studies suggest that older people and even those with some health problems can do it. And this type of training not only saves them time, but works well to get them in shape.
Interval training is intense and consists of working very hard for a few minutes, but having rest periods between sets. Those rest periods are as important as the high intensity work periods, allowing you to recover so you can max out the intervals. Most people tested in these studies were running or cycling, but this also applies to other sports like swimming.
There are a different ways you can do these workouts, but some experts recommend 4 intense four minute workouts with a three minute rest in between. Of course, check with you doctor before you start this intense of a workout regime, but interval training might be the answer to the ever present dilemma of not enough time to work out.
It's a secret the elite athletes have been using for years but researchers weren't sure the average person would be able to do, until now. We're talking about intense interval training, and they say you can get a weeks
worth of workouts in just one hour.
We've all been there, you want to work out but got home to late from the office, or had too much to do that day. So the workout suffered and you never ended up exercising.
Well, for years researchers have known that interval training can help elite athletes compete but were afraid that it would be too hard for most of us---that we simply wouldn't be able to stand how intense those workouts really are. But recent studies suggest that older people and even those with some health problems can do it. And this type of training not only saves them time, but works well to get them in shape.
Interval training is intense and consists of working very hard for a few minutes, but having rest periods between sets. Those rest periods are as important as the high intensity work periods, allowing you to recover so you can max out the intervals. Most people tested in these studies were running or cycling, but this also applies to other sports like swimming.
There are a different ways you can do these workouts, but some experts recommend 4 intense four minute workouts with a three minute rest in between. Of course, check with you doctor before you start this intense of a workout regime, but interval training might be the answer to the ever present dilemma of not enough time to work out.
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