A pair of studies out this week on keeping those extra pounds at bay offer some standard – and sometimes surprising – advice.
1. Ditch those extra TV sets. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo researchers, reporting in this month’s edition of Annals of Behavioral Medicine, found that people who had lost weight, and kept it off at least 5 years had fewer television sets in their homes than overweight people who hadn’t lost weight. Not surprisingly, they also had more exercise equipment, and burned as many as 1,000 more calories each week on physical activity.
2. Purge the pantry. The Cal Poly study, which looked at 167 weight-loss maintainers and around 300 others seeking treatment for obesity, also found those successful at keeping the weight off had fewer high-fat items in their kitchens, and more fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy. (Again, not much of a surprise.)
3. Let kids sleep late on weekends. (Really!) A separate study by researchers in Hong Kong, published in November’s Pediatrics, found letting kids sleep late on weekends and holidays could help them stay thinner. Previous research has established links between lack of sleep and obesity – possibly because sleep deprivation changes levels of our “hunger” hormones. But this study of more than 5,000 kids ages 5 to 15 found that those who made up for lack of weeknight sleep by sleeping later on weekends were much less likely to be overweight than those who did not.
Here we are in the middle of National Child Passenger Safety Week, a great time to remind the parents among you that traffic crashes are still the number-one killer of young children, and that properly belting your kids into the appropriate child-safety seats and/or seat belts reduces their risk of dying in a crash by 
Pregnant women in labor can now have more than the standard cup of ice chips if they’re thirsty, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said Aug. 21. For decades, laboring women haven’t been allowed so much as a glass of water in the delivery room in case they needed to be anesthetized for an emergency cesarean. Under anesthesia, there’s a chance that anything left in the stomach could be drawn into the lungs – which could be fatal. But experts have now decided that improved anesthesia techniques, along with continuing to restrict solid food during labor, offers enough protection. The new recommendation states that women in uncomplicated labor can have small amounts of water, fruit juice without pulp, carbonated beverages, clear tea, black coffee or sports drinks. And even women preparing for a planned cesarean delivery can drink clear liquids up to two hours before they have anesthesia. 
Dear Ms. Elston:
Another reminder came via e-mail from Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists. They’re kicking off the campaign to promote their L.A. area Race for the Cure (coming up in March) with a cool event this month at Dodger Stadium.
Just 5-10% of the 192,000 women in the U.S. diagnosed with breast cancer each year have a hereditary form of the disease. But if breast cancer was in your genes, wouldn’t you want to know? For women at high risk of carrying mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, a simple blood test can tell the tale.
I’ll be having my very first mammogram a week from today, so I was more interested than usual by recent news about this essential screening tool.
Women who currently take or have taken hormone therapy (HT) after menopause – no matter what dose, formulation, or length of use – have increased risk of ovarian cancer, according to an article in today’s issue of JAMA. 
Women who suffer from the awful pain of migraine headaches could have one small consolation: as much as 30% less risk of breast cancer, according to two separate studies involving 11,000 women total. Why? Probably because of estrogen. Lower levels are associated with migraines, while higher levels are associated with increased risk of breast cancer. Another potential factor, said study author Dr. Christopher I. Li and colleagues from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, is that women with migraines tend to use more NSAID pain killers, such as ibuprofen and naproxen. 
