A blog by
Christina Elston
Healthy isn't something you are or aren't. It's a hundred little things: eating a banana, walking in the park, putting a bandage on a boo-boo, playing tag, reading up on ways to keep you and your family well and safe. It's a balance between living well and taking care, and you can start right where you are.
Few diseases strike terror into the hearts of Americans the way cancer can. And a report released yesterday by the American Institute for Cancer Research suggests one way that a growing number of people can help prevent it: Maintain a healthy body weight.
Here are their estimates of the number of cancers in the U.S. linked to overweight and obesity:
49% of endometrial cancers= 20,700 cases/year
35% of esophageal cancers = 5,800 cases/year?
28% of pancreatic cancers = 11,900 cases/year ?
24% of kidney cancers = 13, 900 cases/year?
21% of gallbladder cancers = 2,000 cases/year?
17 % of breast cancers = 33,000 cases/year?
9% of colorectal cancers = 13,200 cases/year?
TOTAL: 100,500 cases/year
The nonprofit organization, founded in 1983, is dedicated to research that shows how everyday actions can reduce cancer risk.
Dr. Bob Sears shows a few friends the "Dracula sneeze."
Wherever you turn these days, you’re likely to run into a runny nose – or someone else’s sneeze. Seasonal flu shots are available, but H1N1 vaccine is still scarce and we’ve got no vaccine at all for the common cold. How’s a family to stay healthy?
Pediatrician Bob Sears, M.D., of the renowned Sears medical family, says he’s noticed families focusing on preventive measures to keep illness at bay. And when they do get sick, they’re embracing more natural remedies. “Americans are getting tired of just popping a pill and turning to pharmaceuticals to fix things,” says the co-author of the Sears Parenting Library series. Here are a few things Dr. Sears recommends:
Wash those hands. We just can’t say this enough. Teach kids to wash their hands several times a day at school, especially before eating, and after using the bathroom or doing a big group project. Younger kids can sing the ABCs while they wash as a way to measure the 20-30 seconds it takes to do it right.
Master the “Dracula sneeze.” And teach the kids, too. If you’ve got to ahhh-choo it, your elbow is the place to do it.
Humidify. Dry air dries out the sinuses, so consider buying a humidity gauge at your local hardware store to monitor the level in your home. You want to keep humidity at around 40%, and you might need to use a humidifier to do this.
Cut down on sugar. This will help keep your immune system strong. “Spread out the sugar,” Sears suggests. “Make that Halloween candy last.” At his house, the rule is just one treat a day. If you keep the candy out of sight, they might eventually even forget about it, he says.
Eat a breakfast with antioxidants. Put blueberries or other berries – fresh or dried – on your child’s cereal. Or just let the kids graze on berries any time. “That would be a great snack idea,” Sears says.
Keep up your exercise routine. That’s especially true for moms and dads. “Stress and lack of exercise definitely will lower your immune system,” Sears says.
Supplement up. Sears recommends that families consider supplementing their healthy diets with extra vitamin C and D, and zinc.
Go natural. Dr. Sears is big on Echinacea this time of year, and has also been promoting a product called Sinupret. This natural herbal blend is designed it keep the sinuses healthy and boost the immune system, and Sears says he tends to recommended it for anyone with sinus trouble. “It’s been a good way to keep my patients’ sinuses healthy,” he explains. (They’ve sent us a sample. We’re checking it out.)
None of these measures is guaranteed to keep your family from falling victim to this year’s cold and flu season, but they can help. And good habits like these are worth keeping all year.
There were 1,088 people hospitalized or killed in California by H1N1 flu between April 23 and Aug. 11, and a report out in today’s issue of JAMA sheds some light on who they were:
Their median age was 27 – much younger than is common with seasonal flu.
68% of them had risk factors (underlying health conditions) for influenza complications.
More than half were obese.
Those most likely to be hospitalized were infants.
Those most likely to die (18%-20%) were age 50 or older, and the most common causes of death were viral pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome.
In my experience, kids with runny noses tend to do what comes naturally. They wipe them. And who has time to stop and look for a tissue?
Not Felicity Floo! Because she’s headed to the zoo, where she plans to meet – and pet – animals of every stripe, feather and hue with hands that are covered in sticky green goo. The result, which you can read about in this wonderful book written and illustrated by E.S. Redmond, goes something like this:
All of the animals down at the zoo are snuffling and snorting and sneezing ACHOO. The lions won’t roar, and the tigers just mew.
Follow this jaunty little rhyme, and Felicity’s shiny green handprints, for a fun way to help your children understand how colds and flu spread. Along with the giggles, they’ll get a reminder (that might just stick) to use tissues on their drippy noses, and wash those little hands.
Even as the new H1N1 vaccine has revived fears about vaccine safety, one more study was released last week showing that use of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal in shots does not translate into elevated mercury levels in children’s blood.
Amid heated debate over whether or not thimerosal – used to prevent cross-contamination in vaccines packaged in multi-dose vials – is linked with autism, its use in childhood vaccines was reduced or eliminated in the U.S. in 2001. But it is still used in some forms of seasonal flu vaccine, including the new vaccine against H1N1. The pandemic flu has proven especially dangerous to children, who are on the priority list to receive the vaccine.
In their study, supported by the National Institutes of Health and reported in the Journal of Pediatrics, researchers from the Rochester General Health System in New York found that the blood levels of mercury in even premature and low-birthweight infants were exceedingly low after vaccination. They tested the blood of 72 newborn infants in Argentina (where vaccines are purchased through the World Health Organization, which has categorically rejected the notion that thimerosal is unsafe) both before and after vaccination. Their blood levels of mercury rose very slightly, and then returned to pre-vaccination levels within 10 days.
Previous studies by the same researchers involving full-term newborns and 2- and 6-month-old babies showed similar results. Even so, parents who want their children to receive thimerosal-free flu shots can choose the inhaled version of the vaccine, or shots packaged in single-dose vials, neither of which contain the preservative.
At 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 1, Daylight Savings time comes to an end. Set your clocks back one hour before turning in Saturday night and enjoy the extra hour of sleep.
But before you do, take a few minutes to check the smoke detectors in your home. (And if you don’t have any, shame on you! A trip to your local hardware store this weekend is a must.) If your detectors are battery operated, change the batteries even if they’re still working. And push that little test button to make sure the unit is functioning properly.
The U.S. Fire Administration says that more than 3,000 people die in house fires in the U.S. each year, and more than 16,000 are injured. Kids under age 5 are especially vulnerable. Protect your family, and you’ll enjoy that additional 60 minutes of shuteye even more on Sunday morning.
Women who are pregnant and have significant symptoms of depression could be at greater risk of complications from the flu, an Ohio State University study released yesterday suggests. Researchers had 22 pregnant women complete questionnaires about their depressive symptoms, then took blood samples after the women had received flu shots. They found the women with the most severe symptoms of depression had double the response to the vaccine as those who weren’t depressed.
The researchers suggest that their responses might also be more severe to an actual influenza infection, and that these women might be more susceptible to complications. The study appears online and is scheduled for eventual print publication in Brain, Behavior and Immunity.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has recommended for several years that pregnant women get vaccinated against seasonal flu, but only about 12-13% actually do. And pregnant women have been more vulnerable to the H1N1 flu circulating since April, accounting for 6% of all deaths in the U.S. from the virus even though they make up just 1% of the population.
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.
It’s 2 a.m., you’ve been coughing all night and you are pretty sure you’ve developed a fever. You don’t feel sick enough for a trip to the ER, you don’t have the energy to navigate your healthcare provider’s telephone triage voice mail loop, but you’d still like some advice.
Consider a visit to Everyday Health and their new Symptom Checker. Onto your screen will pop Stephen Schueler, M.D., an emergency physician who created this online tool. He’ll explain, via the magic of online video, that he’s going to ask you questions about your symptoms. This, says Marjorie L. Matin, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the site, makes the tool feel a bit similar to being interviewed by a doctor. Click here to learn more and visit the site …
While concern over the H1N1 pandemic flu floods the media, the vaccine supply is coming in at a relative trickle. Over the weekend, President Barack Obama declared the H1N1 pandemic a national emergency. And this morning Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made the rounds on network news programs to try and reassure the public that vaccine is on the way.
There’s no need to panic about the emergency proclamation, which Obama signed Friday night and the White House released Saturday. It’s just meant to help health institutions more easily get waivers of federal rules so that they can cope with the large numbers of patients expected as H1N1 spreads. For instance, hospitals could set up additional emergency rooms.
Meanwhile the most reliable thing we can do to keep from becoming one of those H1N1 patients – getting vaccinated – is proving tough. There are now about 16.5 million doses of vaccine available, millions below what is needed, according to news reports. But Sebelius said those numbers are continuing to increase, and urged people looking for an H1N1 flu shot to keep trying.
The vaccine delays are being blamed on delays in the manufacturing process, including the fact that vaccine is growing more slowly in egg-based cultures than manufacturers had expected. On Friday, the number of confirmed deaths due to H1N1 topped 1,000, and Sebelius continued to stress the importance of vaccination – especially for pregnant women and children.
Few diseases strike terror into the hearts of Americans the way cancer can. And a report released yesterday by the American Institute for Cancer Research suggests one way that a growing number of people can help prevent it: Maintain a healthy body weight.
In my experience, kids with runny noses tend to do what comes naturally. They wipe them. And who has time to stop and look for a tissue?
All of the animals down at the zoo are snuffling and snorting and sneezing ACHOO. The lions won’t roar, and the tigers just mew.
Even as the new H1N1 vaccine has revived fears about vaccine safety, one more study was released last week showing that use of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal in shots does not translate into elevated mercury levels in children’s blood.
Women who are pregnant and have significant symptoms of depression could be at greater risk of complications from the flu, an Ohio State University study released yesterday suggests. Researchers had 22 pregnant women complete questionnaires about their depressive symptoms, then took blood samples after the women had received flu shots. They found the women with the most severe symptoms of depression had double the response to the vaccine as those who weren’t depressed.
A pair of studies out this week on keeping those extra pounds at bay offer some standard – and sometimes surprising – advice.
It’s 2 a.m., you’ve been coughing all night and you are pretty sure you’ve developed a fever. You don’t feel sick enough for a trip to the ER, you don’t have the energy to navigate your healthcare provider’s telephone triage voice mail loop, but you’d still like some advice.
While concern over the H1N1 pandemic flu floods the media, the vaccine supply is coming in at a relative trickle. Over the weekend, President Barack Obama declared the H1N1 pandemic a national emergency. And this morning Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made the rounds on network news programs to try and reassure the public that vaccine is on the way.
