Clipmarks | bignosemousie's 'health' clips

Sunscreen is good, no wait.. it's bad

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 18:10:05 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: and it probably doesn't work anyway.

“I believe that Americans have gone overboard with their fear of the sun. I think that sensible exposure to sunlight is really important for your overall health and well-being,” says Holick.

We need 1,000 units of vitamin D a day, but a glass of milk supplies only 100 units and a multivitamin only 400. So most people need the sun in order to avoid deficiency.

Now, new research has found that wearing sunscreen continuously can reduce the amount of vitamin D a person is able to make.

Still, he cautions against the dangers of skin cancer and warns people not to go overboard. However, it is critical, he says, to realize the sun’s rays are not always our enemy.

Clip Source: www.naturalnews.com

40% of the U.S. population is vitamin D deficient.

48% of young girls (9-11 years old) are vitamin D deficient.

Up to 80% of nursing home patients are vitamin D deficient.

Sensible exposure to natural sunlight is the simplest, easiest and yet one of the most important strategies for improving your health.

Tags: sunscreen, vitamin d, health, illness, crazy-making science

Middle school will provide birth control pills, patches

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:42:12 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: Is the school not opening itself up for lawsuits? How can a minor (11-13 years old) be expected to understand the consequences of using hormones? The pill is effective if it is used properly, and without parental knowledge who can say if a woman this young is really capable of that? Would this not be a false sense of security?

What is wrong with condoms? No hormones in those. No prescription needed.

What do you think?

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

PORTLAND, Maine — Pupils at a city middle school will be able to get birth control pills and patches at their student health center after the local school board approved the proposal Wednesday evening.

The plan, offered by city health officials, makes King Middle School the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to students in grades 6 through 8, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

There are no national figures on how many middle schools, where most students range in age from 11 to 13, provide such services.

Peter Doyle, a former middle school teacher, said the proposal violates the rights of parents, potentially ignoring their special knowledge of their children's health, and puts young girls at risk of cancer from too early use of hormone-based contraceptives.

Condoms have been available since 2002 to King students who have parental permission to be treated at its student health center.

Tags: society, birth control, parenting, health, reproduction, is.this.smart?

No Child Left Insured

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 02:31:28 GMT

clipped by: boniface

Clip Source: www.abcnews.go.com

Families Brace for SCHIP Demise

Many Poorer Families Fear Presidential Veto Threatens Their Chidren's Health Care

Carolyn Taylor, a full-time nursing assistant and medical technician, works hard to ensure that she is able to provide for her 11-year-old son Keith. But on Monday, she — along with thousands of others — took time off to rally in support of the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

"The rally was to let Bush know we need health insurance for our children," said Taylor, a Baltimore resident. "We wanted to let President Bush know we are real people. He said there would be no child left behind. Well, we're getting left behind unless he continues SCHIP."

Yet, it appears that the effort may be in vain after Bush vetoed a bill on Wednesday that would have renewed and expanded SCHIP.

Tags: health, care, bush, child, children, insurance, insured

Smart Guides for eating

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 20:28:50 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: The guides are .pdf, so I couldn't clip them. The Smart Plastics Guide looks helpful.

Clip Source: www.iatp.org

Healthier Food Uses of Plastics

Plastics are widely used to store and package foods and beverages. In IATP's latest Smart Guide, we offer tips for parents and children on how to avoid environmental and health risks from plastic packaging of food. The Smart Plastics Guide is the latest in a series of consumer guides put out by IATP. Other guides report on meat and dairy, produce and fish.

Tags: health, plastics, food, environment, agriculture

'Superfoods' Everyone Needs

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:51:11 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: www.webmd.com

Experts say more than a dozen easy-to-find 'superfoods' can do wonders for your health.

It's a bird ... it's a plane ... it's ... walnuts? Don't laugh. The humble walnut, along with a dozen other dietary choices -- from beans to yogurt -- is no less than a "superfood," say some health experts.

Pratt, an ophthalmologist who specializes in ocular plastic surgery at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, Calif., says he became convinced of the power of these basic foods when he saw the positive results of a few simple diet changes in his patients suffering from age-related macular degenerationmacular degeneration -- a leading cause of blindness.

Tags: food, health

House rejects Perry's HPV vaccine order

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 20:30:34 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: Sweet!

Clip Source: www.chron.com

The Texas House voted overwhelmingly today to reject Gov. Rick Perry's executive order requiring middle-school girls to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease linked to cervical cancer.

The House voted 119-21 to tentatively approve a bill that would overturn Perry's mandate that the HPV vaccine be a requirement for school enrollment. Final passage is expected Wednesday.

HB 1098 by Rep. Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, also would prevent the health commissioner in the future from adding the vaccine to the list of shots needed for school.

Bonnen said the vaccine is too new and could put girls' long-term health at risk. He also argued that cervical cancer can be detected and treated if women get regular Pap smears, noting that rates of cervical cancer have dropped 74 percent from 1955 to 1992.

Tags: science, politics, health, vaccine, hpv, texas

TX mandates cervical cancer vaccination

Fri, 02 Feb 2007 23:07:02 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: Holy cow. Rick Perry might be jumping the gun here.

Clip Source: www.bloomberg.com

Texas Governor Orders Cervical Cancer Vaccination for Girls

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Texas Governor Rick Perry signed an order requiring school-age girls to receive a cervical cancer vaccination, saying it would cut future medical costs for treating the disease.

Girls ages 11 and 12 would receive the human papillomavirus vaccine prior to entering the sixth grade starting in 2008, a press release put out by the Republican governor said. State health officials also would start making the vaccine immediately available to females between 9 and 21 years old.

Requiring the vaccinations is ``responsible health and fiscal policy that has the potential to significantly reduce cases of cervical cancer and mitigate future medical costs,'' Perry said in a press release.

Tags: cancer, women, texas, hpv, vaccination, politics, science

Women: unrepressed anger will kill you

Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:20:27 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: Even science is telling women that showing anger is bad bad bad. Now repress your outrage and get back in the kitchen and make me a sandwich.

Clip Source: today.reuters.co.uk

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Some women who make a habit of venting their anger may be more likely to develop blockages in the heart arteries, new research suggests.

Researchers found that women who tended to outwardly express their anger had a higher risk of artery blockages if they also had one of several other heart risk factors: older age, diabetes or high cholesterol. Other measures of hostility, like suppressed anger and hostile temperament in general, were unrelated to the risk of coronary artery disease.

It's possible that expressed anger was the most "toxic" aspect of a hostile temperament, according to the study authors, led by Dr. David S. Krantz of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Science in Bethesda, Maryland.

Clip Source: today.reuters.co.uk

Only expressed anger was linked to the risk of showing objective artery blockages on an angiogram, but women who had more symptoms scored higher on all measures of anger and hostility than women with fewer symptoms.

Tags: women, health, science, anger, heart disease

Diet your way to a long, miserable life!

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 17:00:05 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: Very interesting article about calorie-restriced diets.

Clip Source: www.salon.com

Calorie-restricted dieters cut their food intake drastically, to around 1,200-1,400 calories a day for a woman and 1,800-2,000 for a man, depending on the individual's height and weight. Those meager metrics of tastiness must be further apportioned to constitute 30 percent protein, 30 percent fat and 40 percent carbs. It's an eating regimen that is greatly aided by calculators, computer software and postal scales.

Hard-core CR dieters usually lose a good deal of weight, though guidelines suggest no more than a pound a week. Some lose their ability to perform strenuous exercise, some (especially men) suffer from an altered or reduced libido, and women may stop getting their periods. Pictures of the diet's most devoted practitioners reveal them to be emaciated, like concentration-camp survivors or after-school-special cautionary tales or thinspiration models for pro-ana Web sites. With sunken facial features and hunched frames, these spokespeople hardly look like models of what is generally considered good health.

The first thing you'll read about calorie restriction if you follow its press or check out any of its blogged literature is that it's completely, totally different from its look-alike cousin, anorexia nervosa. The major factor that separates the two is the CR dieter's fanatical attention to nutrients, packing every puny portion with maximum value. This is not disordered eating, supposedly, because CR dieters are concerned with extending their stay on earth, not with making themselves disappear.

Tags: diet, food, calorie restricted diet, quorn, health, lifestyle

Violence threatens reproductive health

Thu, 28 Sep 2006 17:41:49 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: "It is estimated that over 60 million girls are missing" from the world population.

Clip Source: www.unfpa.org

Domestic and Sexual Violence Threaten Reproductive Health

At least one in every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or abused in some other way, usually by an intimate partner or family member, according to a new report by the United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, which says domestic and sexual violence threaten family planning efforts and women’s reproductive health worldwide.

Documenting the extent of the problem, The State of World Population 2000 report says that gender-based violence constitutes a life-long threat for hundreds of millions of girls and women around the world. In South Asia, where boys are preferred by parents, the problem begins in the womb. It is estimated that over 60 million girls are missing, the result of sex-selective abortion, infanticide and neglect. So-called "honour-killings", domestic abuse, dowry-related violence, genital mutilation, rape and trafficking in women and girls are other forms of the problem.

One of the cases cited is that of a 12-year-old Jordanian girl beaten to death by her father with sticks and iron chains because she went for walks without his permission and had thus "dishonoured" the family. Every year between 25 and 50 women in Jordan are the victims of "honour" killings; in Pakistan such killings claim some 1,000 women a year.

Tags: violence, unfpa, domestic violence, violence against women, reproductive health, women's health

Secrets of the Great Plague

Tue, 29 Aug 2006 21:53:17 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: I watched this last night. I recommend catching it on repeat if you can. A scientist found a genetic mutation that prevents people from becoming infected with HIV. He used the Great Plague survivors as a start. I also learned more about how the plague affected people. Pretty gory.

Clip Source: health.discovery.com

Secrets Of The Great Plague

Since the beginning of recorded history, infectious disease has reigned supreme as the number one killer on the planet. As scientists and leaders around the world brace for the next global health disaster, some experts are looking for help in the most unlikely of places—the past. From London's Great Plague of 1665 to the AIDS crisis of today, Secrets of the Great Plague follows medical detective Stephen O'Brien as he unravels the mysteries surrounding our most deadly epidemics.

Tags: dhc, discovery health, plague, great plague, aids, science, health

Tony Blair threatens to ban junk food ads

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 17:01:12 GMT

clipped by: bignosemousie
clipper's remarks: From source:

Unless the government could get people "to take some sort of responsibility for their own health" obesity and alcohol abuse will cost the country "billions", added Mr Blair.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Blair threatens junk food ad ban

The prime minister said he wanted to give the food industry a chance to prove it could regulate its own ads.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) says three options set out so far by media watchdog Ofcom do not go far enough and banning ads for products like crisps and fizzy drinks would help protect children's health.

It is estimated that 14% of children in England are clinically obese.

Unless the government could get people "to take some sort of responsibility for their own health" obesity and alcohol abuse will cost the country "billions", added Mr Blair.

Tags: blair, uk, junk food, advertising