New Study Paints Grim Health Picture for Obese Teens

Severely obese teens are at increased risk for a host of serious health problems as adults, including asthma, kidney disease and sleep disorders, according to a new study.

"Most people understand that the longer you carry extra weight, the higher your chances of developing heart disease or diabetes," said study author Dr. Thomas Inge, professor of surgery and pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, in Ohio. "But now it seems that an even larger number of conditions should be added to the list of health problems that some obese teenagers will likely face down the road."

The study, published online Nov. 18 in the journal Pediatrics, included more than 1,500 severely obese American adults, aged 19 to 76. All were about to undergo weight-loss surgery. They were asked about their weight at age 18 and then assessed for medical problems related to obesity.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_142617.html

Weight loss may help steady irregular heartbeat

People with an irregular heart rhythm could see an improvement in symptoms if they lose weight in addition to managing their other heart risks, says a new study.

Researchers found that people who lost more than 30 pounds and kept their other health conditions in check saw greater improvements in atrial fibrillation symptoms than those who just managed their other health conditions without trying to lose weight.

"Risk factor management is a crucial component of managing atrial fibrillation," Dr. Prashanthan Sanders, the study's lead author from the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia, said.

"I think that's what the public needs to be aware of and it's not out there yet," he added.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_142646.html

Health Tip: Eat Safely During the Holidays

Before you stuff the turkey or prepare holiday treats, make sure you take precautions to prepare your food and store it safely after the feast is over.

The Foodsafety.gov website offers these holiday guidelines:

• Thoroughly wash your hands, produce and all surfaces and utensils.
• While shopping, separate raw meat and poultry from any foods that won't be cooked.
• Use a food thermometer to make sure all meat is cooked to an appropriate temperature.
• Reheat any sauces, gravies and soups to a rolling boil.
• Make sure all eggs are thoroughly cooked. Use only pasteurized egg products.
• Promptly refrigerate all leftovers at 40 degrees or below. Use leftovers within four days, or toss them out.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_142615.html

Older men who walk daily may lower their stroke risk

Older men who walked at least one to two hours each day compared to less than half an hour per day had a reduced risk of stroke, in a large population-based study reported in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

In a study of 3,435 healthy men age 60 to 80, researchers asked distance walked each week and usual walking pace. They divided them into groups: those who spent zero-three hours a week; four-seven hours; eight-14 hours; 15-21 hours; and more than 22 hours walking per week. Men were followed for the next 10 years and monitored for all new cases of stroke.

Researchers found:

• Men who walked eight-14 hours per week had about one-third lower risk of stroke than men who spent zero-three hours walking each week.
• The risk was about two-thirds lower for those walking more than 22 hours a week.
• 42 percent walked for more than eight hours per week while 9 percent walked for more than 22 hours per week.
• Men who walked zero-three hours per week had 80 strokes per 10,000 person years and men who walked eight-14 hours per week had 55 strokes per 10,000 person years.  http://newsroom.heart.org/news/older-men-who-walk-daily-may-lower-their-stroke-risk

Testing for Pregnancy-Linked Diabetes Should Be Routine, Experts Say

All pregnant women should be screened for diabetes at their first prenatal check up, according to new recommendations from an international group of endocrinology experts.

The test should be done before women are 13 weeks pregnant or as soon as possible after that milestone is reached, according to new clinical practice guidelines released by the Endocrine Society to help doctors improve the level of care for pregnant women with diabetes.

Up to one in five women may develop gestational diabetes -- a form of diabetes that begins during pregnancy. Traditional testing methods, however, only detect about 25 percent of these cases. As a result, the experts caution that many pregnant women with gestational diabetes are going undiagnosed, which could increase their risk of having an overly large baby and complications during delivery.

"Many women have type 2 diabetes but may not know it," Dr. Ian Blumer, chair of the guidelines task force, said in a society news release. "Because untreated diabetes can harm both the pregnant woman and the fetus, it is important that testing for diabetes be done early on in pregnancy so that if diabetes is found appropriate steps can be immediately undertaken to keep both the woman and her fetus healthy."

The guidelines also recommend using lower blood sugar levels to diagnose gestational diabetes, which will allow doctors to detect more cases.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_142530.html

Email this page to a friendShare on facebookShare on twitterBookmark & SharePrinter-friendly versionSubscribe to RSS Schools Can Set Tone for Healthy Eating

Offering students healthier food choices at school helps improve their eating habits, a new study suggests.

The research included 55 middle schools in Michigan with mostly low-income students. Some of the schools made only limited changes to their nutrition policies and practices, while others introduced major changes.

Some of the new programs included raising nutrition standards for snacks and beverages, offering taste tests of healthy foods and beverages to students, marketing healthy foods in school, and removing ads for unhealthy foods.

In schools that introduced three or more new nutrition practices and policies, students ate 26 percent more fruits, 14 percent more vegetables and 30 percent more whole grains. They also increased their consumption of fiber, calcium and vitamins A and C, according to the study, which was published online Nov. 11 in the journal Childhood Obesity.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_142537.html

Your Fridge and Food Safety

Cleaning the refrigerator is one of those things most of us put off, but according to the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service freshening up the fridge regularly is good for your health.

• Start with a batch of vinegar and water to wipe down the inside walls and shelves.
• If the stains are really stubborn, try scrubbing with a mixture of baking soda and water.
• You can attack nasty odors with rolled up newspapers. Stuff them in the fridge and leave for a few days to soak up any lingering smells. When you take them out, use the vinegar and water solution.
• Or you can combat odors with a cotton swab soaked in vanilla. Try putting it in the freezer for a few days and see if things improve.
• Once the scrubbing is done, prevent future odors with an open container of baking soda or coffee on a back shelf.
• Finally, if these eco-friendly solutions don't do the trick, bring in the commercial cleaner. But make sure you follow the instructions on the label.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/videos/news/Stinky_Refrigerator_111513-1.html

Obesity Surgery Carries Risk in Subsequent Pregnancy

Women who have undergone bariatric surgery should be classified as at-risk during pregnancy, with a greater chance of giving birth to preterm or small-for-gestational-age babies, Swedish researchers said.

In a 1999-2009 cohort of 2,534 births following weight-loss surgery, nearly 10% (243) were preterm compared with 6.1% of 12,468 control births of similar age, parity, early pregnancy body mass index (BMI), smoking status, education level, and delivery year, according to Olof Stephansson, MD, PhD, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and colleagues.  http://www.medpagetoday.com/OBGYN/Pregnancy/42873

Herbal Supplements Are Often Not What They Seem

Americans spend an estimated $5 billion a year on unproven herbal supplements that promise everything from fighting off colds to curbing hot flashes and boosting memory. But now there is a new reason for supplement buyers to beware: DNA tests show that many pills labeled as healing herbs are little more than powdered rice and weeds.

Using a test called DNA barcoding, a kind of genetic fingerprinting that has also been used to help uncover labeling fraud in the commercial seafood industry, Canadian researchers tested 44 bottles of popular supplements sold by 12 companies. They found that many were not what they claimed to be, and that pills labeled as popular herbs were often diluted — or replaced entirely — by cheap fillers like soybean, wheat and rice.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/05/science/herbal-supplements-are-often-not-what-they-seem.html?src=me&_r=0

Fast Food Companies Relying on Social Media to Target Younger Consumers

Kids are seeing fewer ads for fast food on television, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t targeted as consumers in other ways.

There are healthier options to go along with the fries and burgers — and even a slimmed down french fry, but a new study from the Yale Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity says fast food restaurantsare still targeting young kids in marketing campaigns.

The report, called “Fast Food FACTS 2013″ follows-up the organization’s report from 2010. The researchers studied 18 of the top fast food chains in the U.S. and documented the changes in the nutritional quality of the food they served, as well as their marketing campaigns to kids and teens on TV and online.

Since 2010, kids between the ages of 6 to 11 saw 10% fewer TV ads for fast foods, and more of these ads included healthier meals, such as fruit snacks and salads.  http://news.yahoo.com/fast-food-companies-relying-social-media-target-younger-163606325.html

5 Foods That Could Become Illegal With FDA Move to Ban Trans Fats

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration just announced its preliminary determination that partially hydrogenated oil is no longer generally recognized as safe for use in food.

The move paves the way for a ban, or at the very least, strict limits on the fake fats, which are the primary source of artificial trans fats in the diet.

Artificial trans fats are formed when food makers turn liquid oils into solid fats in a process called hydrogenation. Hydrogenation increases a food's shelf life, but the science shows it also pumps the body full of artery-clogging fat.

Although the agency said that the average consumption of trans fats has declined from 4.6 grams per day in 2003 to about 1 gram per day in 2012, FDA commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg said in a statement that further reduction would prevent more than 20,000 heart attacks and 7,000 new cases of coronary heart disease each year.  http://abcnews.go.com/Health/favorite-foods-trans-fats/story?id=20808283

Low-Cal Diet Keeps Aging Rats Active

A diet with 30% fewer calories than normal preserved the interest and ability in laboratory rats to move around as they aged -- an effect also seen with exercise, researchers said here.

Among 1-year-old rats with relatively high activity levels at baseline, almost no reduction was seen over the next 18-24 weeks when kept on the low-calorie diet, whereas rats allowed to feed freely showed an approximately 25% reduction in activity (P<0.05), said Michael Salvatore, PhD, at Louisiana State University's campus in Shreveport.  http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/SFN/42854

FDA to Ban Trans Fats in Foods

U.S. health officials announced Thursday a plan to phase out heart-harmful trans fats in processed foods and restaurant fare.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg said the proposed restrictions on the use of trans fats could prevent 20,000 heart attacks a year and 7,000 deaths.

"The agency has made a preliminary determination that partially hydrogenated oils, a major source of artificial trans fat in processed foods, are not generally recognized as safe for use in food," Hamburg said during a morning news conference. "This is an important step for removing harmful trans fats from processed foods."  http://consumer.healthday.com/vitamins-and-nutritional-information-27/food-and-nutrition-news-316/fda-to-ban-trans-fats-in-foods-681939.html

Doctors are told to get tougher with patients about their weight, recommend counseling

Next time you go for a checkup, don’t be surprised if your doctor gets on your case about your weight.

The medical profession has issued new guidelines for fighting the nation’s obesity epidemic, and they urge physicians to be a lot more aggressive about helping patients drop those extra pounds.

Doctors should calculate your body mass index, a weight-to-height ratio. And if you need to lose weight, they should come up with a plan and send you for counseling.

“We recognize that telling patients to lose weight is not enough,” said Dr. Donna Ryan, co-chair of the guidelines committee.

The good news? By next year, most insurance companies are expected to cover counseling and other obesity treatments, following in the steps of the Medicare program, which began paying for one-on-one help last year.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/doctors-are-told-to-get-tougher-with-patients-about-their-weight-recommend-counseling/2013/11/13/bf3faef4-4c9f-11e3-bf60-c1ca136ae14a_story.html

Study shows adults had significant weight loss three years after bariatric surgery

National Institutes of Health-funded researchers found that adults had significant weight loss three years after bariatric surgery, with the majority losing the most weight during the first year. A separate study in teens found few incidences of complications in the first 30 days after bariatric surgery. These studies are part of the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery (LABS) and Teen-LABS. More than one-third of U.S. adults are obese, defined as having a body mass index or BMI of 30 or higher, and almost 17 percent of youth are also obese. Severe obesity is a BMI of 35 or more in adults and teens. BMI measures weight in relation to height.

Both studies are funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of NIH. The results appear online November 4 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and JAMA Pediatrics, respectively.  http://www.nih.gov/news/health/nov2013/niddk-04.htm

Allergy myths busted: Guess what you didn't know about gluten?

Two truths about allergies that may blow your mind: Bo Obama isn’t a hypoallergenic dog, and nobody is actually “allergic” to gluten.

These are just two examples of the myths allergists would very much like to bust, according to a presentation being given today at the annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Dr. David Stukus put the presentation together after years of patients coming to him with fiercely held, but totally incorrect, beliefs about allergies — something that’s only gotten worse in this age of medical Googling.  http://www.today.com/health/allergy-myths-busted-guess-what-you-didnt-know-about-gluten-8C11545200

Kids Who Add Sleep Can Subtract Pounds, Study Suggests

Getting kids to eat less may be as simple as making sure they get a good night's sleep, a new, small study suggests.

That doesn't mean sleep is the answer to the U.S. obesity epidemic, but it might be one part of the solution, according to study author Chantelle Hart, an associate professor of public health at Temple University's Center for Obesity Research and Education in Philadelphia.

The three-week study of 37 children, aged 8 to 11, suggests that increasing sleep could decrease food intake and improve weight regulation in this age group, she said.

Hart said the next step is looking at whether getting more sleep over a longer period might have even more dramatic effect on weight.

"Achieving a good night's sleep during childhood should be explored as an important strategy to enhance prevention and intervention approaches for obesity," she said.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_142184.html

Weight-Loss Surgery Safe for Very Obese Teens, Study Says

Researchers say they have some good news for severely obese teens who decide to undergo weight-loss surgery: These patients are at low risk for major surgical complications.

The number of American teens having weight-loss surgery tripled between the late 1990s and 2003, and it continues to increase. But there is limited information about the safety of the surgery in teens.

In the new study, researchers looked at nearly 250 severely obese teens with an average age of 17 who had weight-loss surgery. Half of the patients had four or more obesity-related conditions, such as high cholesterol, sleep apnea, back pain, joint pain, high blood pressure and fatty liver disease.

The teens underwent different types of weight-loss surgery, including laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (66 percent), vertical sleeve gastrectomy (28 percent) and adjustable gastric banding (6 percent), according to the study, which was published online Nov. 4 in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

None of the teens died during their initial hospitalization or within a month of their surgery. Major complications, such as needing a subsequent surgery, occurred in 8 percent of the patients, the researchers said in a journal news release. Minor complications, such as being readmitted to the hospital for dehydration, occurred in 15 percent of the patients.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_142188.html

Fewer Pounds May Lead to Better Sex, Researchers Say

Women who shed pounds after weight-loss surgery gained a more satisfying sex life, researchers report.

Two years after their procedure, known as bariatric surgery, women reported improvements in their arousal, lubrication, sexual desire and overall sexual satisfaction, according to a study published online Nov. 4 in JAMA Surgery.

Blood tests also showed that the women had increased levels of sex hormones, leading researchers to theorize that massive weight loss could improve a woman's fertility.

The women's improved sex lives probably occurred because the weight loss improved how they felt physically and emotionally, said lead author David Sarwer, a professor in the psychiatry and surgery departments of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

"Sexuality truly is one of those phenomena where our behavior lies at the intersection of what's happening with us physiologically and what we are experiencing psychologically," Sarwer said.

About half of all women who seek bariatric surgery are experiencing signs of sexual dysfunction, the study authors noted in background information.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_142191.html

Mediterranean Diet May Help Women Live Longer, Healthier Lives

Middle-aged women who follow a heart-healthy Mediterranean diet may live a healthier, longer life, a new study suggests.

"Women with healthier dietary patterns at midlife were 40 percent more likely to survive to age 70 or over," said lead researcher Cecilia Samieri, a postdoctoral fellow who conducted the study while at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. She is now a researcher at INSERM and Universite de Bordeaux, in France. INSERM is the French equivalent of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

The women who ate healthier not only lived longer, but they also thrived. They were less likely to have any major chronic diseases and more likely to have no impairment in physical functioning, mental health or thinking skills. The research did not, however, prove a cause-and-effect link between better eating and longer life.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_142192.html

Some nutrition and diet studies may overstate results

Doctors, policymakers and everyday people may make decisions or give advice based on the results of published nutrition studies. But a new analysis shows researchers sometimes overstate the results of those reports.

Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham looked at papers published about nutrition and obesity in leading medical and public health journals. They tracked how often authors overreached in the summary of their findings.

"We found that about one of 11 studies have some kind of issue that we identified that was degrading the fidelity of research reporting," Dr. Nir Menachemi said.

"In the article we call it an overreaching statement. That's probably the most fair way to characterize these infractions," Menachemi, who led the analysis, told Reuters Health.

His team's findings were published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_142111.html

For some obese people, surgery beats other options

Diet, exercise, therapy and drugs can help obese people get healthier. But weight-loss surgery does a better job of getting rid of extra pounds and treating type 2 diabetes, a new review of past studies shows.

The studies only followed people for two years. So it's possible the results would look different further down the line, the authors write.

So-called bariatric surgery, like gastric bypass or gastric banding, reduces the size of the stomach so patients can only eat small amounts of food.

Many doctors have noted the dramatic weight loss that often results. But it wasn't obvious how surgery stacks up against traditional diet and exercise strategies.

The new review included 11 studies. Each study randomly chose some obese people to have surgery and others to make diet or lifestyle changes instead, for instance. Together those studies included close to 800 people.

Participants in the bariatric surgery groups lost an average of 57 more pounds than those in the non-surgery groups. Average weight loss ranged from 45 to 100 pounds among those who had surgery.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_142109.html

‘Intensive' exercise may benefit heart failure patients

Some doctors caution people with heart failure against pushing themselves too hard physically. But a new analysis of past studies suggests heart patients may actually benefit more from relatively intensive exercise.

Researchers found people with heart failure had a 23-percent improvement in heart function after taking part in relatively high-intensity exercise programs. That compared to a 7-percent improvement among those in low-intensity programs.

"I think we need to open up our eyes and really ask ourselves, ‘Does high intensity equal higher risk or does it mean higher rewards?'" said Neil Smart, the study's lead author.

"I personally think it's not higher risk," he told Reuters Health. "I think it means higher rewards."

Smart is an associate professor at Australia's University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales.

About 5.8 million people in the United States have heart failure, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_142108.html

U.S. girls keep hitting puberty earlier

Girls are developing breasts at younger and younger ages, a new study confirms. And upward trends in childhood obesity seem to be playing a major role.

Researchers found African American girls started getting breasts just before they turned nine, on average. Among white girls the average age was about nine and a half - a few months earlier than in the 1990s.

The findings "confirm an ongoing downward trend in pubertal timing among U.S. girls," said Dr. Anders Juul.

"It's been worrying for the U.S. as well as the rest of the world," Juul said. He heads the Department of Growth and Reproduction at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark, and wasn't involved in the new report.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_142210.html

Weight-Loss Surgery Seems to Beat Diet and Exercise

For people who have a lot of weight to lose, weight-loss surgery appears more effective than diet and exercise, a new review suggests.

The one caveat to this study, however, is that the results only include two years of data, so the long-term outcomes are still unknown. This type of study, called a meta-analysis, attempts to uncover a common thread in a number of previous studies.

"Individuals allocated to bariatric surgery lost more body weight -- on average 26 kilograms [57.3 pounds] -- compared with nonsurgical treatment, and had higher remission rates of type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome," said study author Viktoria Gloy, a scientist at the Basel Institute for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at University Hospital Basel in Switzerland. Metabolic syndrome is a group of symptoms that increase the risk for type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

"After surgery, patients also reported greater improvements in quality-of-life measures, and had greater reduction in medication use than nonsurgical patients," Gloy added.

Gloy and colleagues published the findings online Oct. 22 in the BMJ.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_141789.html

Low Vitamin D Tied to Anemia Risk in Kids

Children with low levels of vitamin D may be at increased risk for anemia, according to a large new study.

Researchers analyzed blood samples from more than 10,400 children and found that vitamin D levels were consistently lower in youngsters with anemia, a condition involving lower-than-normal levels of red blood cells.

Kids with vitamin D levels below 30 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) were nearly twice as likely to have anemia as those with normal vitamin D levels.

Children with vitamin D levels below 30 ng/ml have mild vitamin D deficiency while those with levels at or below 20 ng/ml have severe deficiency, according to the study. Both require treatment with vitamin D supplements.

The researchers also found that 14 percent of black children had anemia, much higher than the 2 percent rate among white children. Black children also had lower vitamin D levels overall, but their anemia risk did not rise until their vitamin D levels were far lower than those of white children.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_141788.html

Your Flu Shot May Also Help Your Heart

If avoiding an achy, feverish week or so laid up with the flu doesn't motivate you to get a flu shot, a new study linking flu shots to a lower incidence of heart disease might persuade you to roll up your sleeve.

People in the study who got flu shots were one-third less likely to have heart issues, such as heart failure or a heart attack, compared to those who opted against vaccination. The flu shot was associated with an even greater reduction of heart problems if someone had heart disease to start with, according to the study.

"This is one further piece of evidence to convince patients to go out and get their flu shot," said the study's lead author, Dr. Jacob Udell, a cardiology and clinician scientist, at Women's College Hospital at the University of Toronto.

Results of the study are published in the Oct. 23/30 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_141784.html

Early Periods May Signal Greater Diabetes Risk, Study Suggests

Girls who start menstruating earlier than most may be more likely to develop type 2 diabetes in adulthood, a new study suggests.

The study of women in eight European countries doesn't confirm that early puberty causes diabetes, but it does point to an association.

"The body is undergoing many changes during puberty," said Cathy Elks, a research fellow at the MRC epidemiology unit at the University of Cambridge in England. "Our research, as well as previous related studies, suggests that the biological factors implicated in the timing of development may have a role in the development of type 2 diabetes, despite the fact that these processes occur many years before the manifestation of disturbed [blood sugar] control."

For the study, published in the November issue of Diabetes Care, Elks and colleagues examined the medical records of more than 15,000 women and found that those who began to menstruate between the ages of 8 and 11 were 70 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those who began to menstruate at age 13, the median age.

Other studies have shown that girls who start puberty earlier are more likely to develop obesity, heart disease and some kinds of cancer.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_141872.html

Study: Coffee Might Lower Risk of Liver Cancer

Drinking coffee might reduce your risk of liver cancer, a new review suggests.

Researchers analyzed the findings of 16 studies that were published between 1996 and 2012 and included a total of nearly 3,200 patients. The researchers said that drinking coffee may reduce the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma, the most common type of liver cancer, by about 40 percent.

Some of the data also suggests that drinking three cups of coffee a day reduces liver cancer risk by more than 50 percent, according to the findings, which were published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

"Our research confirms past claims that coffee is good for your health, and particularly the liver," study author Dr. Carlo La Vecchia, of the University of Milan, in Italy, said in a journal news release. "The favorable effect of coffee on liver cancer might be mediated by coffee's proven prevention of diabetes, a known risk factor for the disease, or for its beneficial effects on cirrhosis and liver enzymes."   http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_141873.html

Tip of the Day

If main portions at a restaurant are larger than you want, order an appetizer or side dish instead of an entrée or share a main dish with a friend.

Some Improvement Seen in U.S. Cholesterol Levels: CDC

Americans' levels of "good" cholesterol are improving, but total cholesterol levels haven't changed one way or the other in the past few years, U.S. health officials reported Thursday.

Meanwhile, the nation's screening rates for cholesterol have stalled, according to the new analysis from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cholesterol levels include several components. With total cholesterol, low levels are healthier. In contrast, for high-density lipoprotein (HDL) -- the "good" cholesterol -- low levels are a risk factor for heart disease, while high levels are considered protective.

The CDC reported that compared to 2009-2010, fewer Americans aged 20 and older had low levels of good cholesterol in 2011-2012.

The percentage dropped by 20 percent -- to 17 percent of adults having low levels of good cholesterol.  http://consumer.healthday.com/public-health-information-30/centers-for-disease-control-news-120/fewer-americans-with-high-cholesterol-report-681424.html

Lower Blood Sugar Levels May Aid Memory, Study Suggests

Higher blood sugar levels may increase the risk of memory problems, even in people who have blood sugar (glucose) levels within the normal range, a new study suggests.

The study included 141 people, average age 63, who did not have diabetes or pre-diabetes -- which is sometimes called impaired glucose tolerance. The study did not include people who were overweight, who drank more than three-and-a-half servings of alcohol a day, or had been diagnosed with memory and thinking problems.

The investigators tested the memory skills and checked the blood sugar levels of the participants. In addition, brain scans were used to measure the size of their hippocampus, a part of the brain that plays an important role in memory.

People with lower blood sugar levels did better on the memory tests. For example, on a test where participants were asked to recall a list of 15 words 30 minutes after hearing them, those with lower blood sugar levels remembered more of the words than those with higher blood sugar levels.  http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_141829.html

Bring back home ec!

WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOUNG PEOPLE today? It’s a perennial question, but a certain pattern can be detected in the concerns being aired right now. There’s health and nutrition: Almost a third of Americans under age 19 are now overweight or obese, habituated to a diet of cheap processed food. There’s financial literacy, with debt spiraling up to unsustainable levels as students juggle increasingly complex burdens of credit payments and student loans. And there’s the general issue of self-sufficiency, with record proportions of young adults living with their parents, unable to patch together the means and the will to set up house for themselves.  http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2013/10/12/bring-back-home/EJJi9yzjgJfNMqxWUIEDgO/story.html?s_campaign=sm_tw