Clipmarks | coconutshell's 'health' clips

Many women do not recognise bulimia symptoms

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 07:45:44 GMT

clipped by: coconutshell

In a study of 158 women with bulimia-type eating disorders, Australian researchers found that nearly half did not acknowledge a problem with their eating. This was particularly true of those who did not vomit to control their weight.

But there are also non-purging forms of bulimia, where tactics like excessive exercise or strict dieting are used to counter binge-eating episodes.

Still other people have certain symptoms of bulimia but fall short of all the criteria used to diagnose the disorder; they may fall into the category of "eating disorder not otherwise specified," or EDNOS.

The new study, published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, focused on women with "bulimic-type" eating disorders. This included those with purging or non-purging bulimia, as well as women with EDNOS. Some women in the latter group were diagnosed with binge-eating disorder, which involves excessive eating but no purging to compensate]

Women who used self-induced vomiting were nearly six times more likely than other women to recognize that they had a problem, the study found. Continued...

Clip Source: today.reuters.com

This is partly due to media portrayals of eating disorders, which typically highlight anorexia and purging-type bulimia, Mond told Reuters Health.

But there's also a general perception that excessive exercise and strict calorie-cutting are acceptable, or even "desirable," behaviors, he added.

And that awareness needs to spread not only in the general public, Mond noted, but among doctors and other health professionals.

In some cases where a woman with one of these eating disorders does seek treatment, he explained, the doctor may treat what's seen as the "true" problem -- such as depression or anxiety -- leaving the eating disorder inadequately addressed.

Tags: health, disorder, bulimia, women, society, people

American men dropping the testosterone?

Mon, 30 Oct 2006 04:37:11 GMT

clipped by: coconutshell
clipper's remarks: Contributing factor to this maybe?

Clip Source: health.yahoo.com

Testosterone Tumbling in American Males

FRIDAY, Oct. 27 (HealthDay News) -- The testosterone-fueled American male may be losing his punch.

Over the past two decades, levels of the sex hormone in U.S. men have been falling steadily, a new study finds.

The reasons for this trend are unclear, said researchers at the New England Research Institutes in Waterdown, Mass. They noted that neither aging nor certain other health factors, such as smoking or obesity, can fully explain the decline.

"Male serum testosterone levels appear to vary by generation, even after age is taken into account," study lead author Thomas G. Travison said in a prepared statement.

Testosterone is the primary male sex hormone and plays an important role in maintaining bone and muscle mass. Low testosterone levels have been linked to health problems, including lowered libido and diabetes.

It's normal for men's testosterone levels to peak in their late 20s and then start to gradually decline, experts say. But this study found that overall testosterone levels are lower than they were 20 years ago.

"In 1988, men who were 50 years and older had higher serum testosterone concentrations than did comparable 50-year-old men in 1996. This suggests that some factor other than age may be contributing to the observed declines in testosterone over time," Travison said.

He and his colleagues analyzed blood samples -- along with health and other information -- from about 1,500 men in the greater Boston area who took part in the Massachusetts Male Aging Study. That study collected data in 1987-89, 1995-97, and 2002-04.

"This analysis deals with men who were born between 1915 and 1945, but our baseline data were not obtained until the late 1980s, when the elder subjects were about 70 years old, and the youngest about 45," Travison said.

"Events occurring in earlier decades could certainly help explain our results, if their effects persisted into recent years," he noted.

Tags: men, health, testosterone, study

Moderate Drinking reduces heart attack risk for healthy men

Thu, 26 Oct 2006 07:55:56 GMT

clipped by: coconutshell
clipper's remarks: I've read similar articles before...there you go gentlemen.

Clip Source: www.medicalnewstoday.com

Moderate Drinking Reduces Heart Attack Risk For Healthy Men

If you are a man who doesn't smoke, has a healthy diet, does plenty of exercise, and consumes alcohol in moderation, your chances of having myocardial infarction (heart attack) are lower than a man with a similar lifestyle who never drinks, say researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, USA.

Previous studies indicated that moderate alcohol consumption may lower heart attack risk for high risk people. This is the first study ever to show that this also applies to healthy men with healthy lifestyles.

Dr. Kenneth J. Mukamal, and team, looked at information on 8,867 healthy men from the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. The study had data on the their eating habits, alcohol consumption, exercise routines and body weight. None of the men was overweight - they all had a Body Mass Index (BMI) of under 25. All of them did moderate to vigorous exercise for 30 minutes or more per day. They all consumed plenty of vegetables, fruits, cereal fiber, chicken, fish, soy, nuts and polyunsaturated fat. Their consumption of trans-fat, red and processed meats, and multivitamins was low.

The researchers said that the men who consumed about two drinks per day had the lowest risk of having a heart attack, while those who never drank had the highest. One quarter of all the heart attack patients consumed under 5 grams of alcohol per day.

Dr. Kenneth J. Mukamal stressed that he would not advise people who never drink to start doing so just because of this study. The study just looked at heart health and did not take into account other possible risks, such as cancer.

Tags: health, men, drinking, heart

Are you accident prone?

Sun, 22 Oct 2006 07:25:09 GMT

clipped by: coconutshell
clipper's remarks: Regardless...I still walk into red-brick walls and glass doors...

Clip Source: www.theregister.co.uk

What type of person is accident-prone?

Hard luck or heriditary?

"Accident-prone" means one suffers a greater number of accidents than normal. Researchers are trying to discover if there is a certain type of person who is accident-prone.

A few studies reveal a few clues. A French team of public health researchers, led by Dr G C Gauchard of the WHO Collaborative Centre in the Faculty of Medicine at the Henri Poincare University in Nancy, attempted to identify the determinants of accident-pronessness. They studied 2,610 French railway workers and reported their findings in the 1 February 2006 issue of Occupational Medicine.

The Gauchard team found that 27 per cent of the individuals they studied had more frequent than usual accidents with injuries. This was much higher than the researchers suspected. The researchers also found that youth, inexperience on the job, dissatisfaction with the job (indicated by applying for a job transfer), having no safety training, having a sleep disorder, smoking, and getting little or no exercise were all related to suffering more accidental injuries. Surprisingly, there was another factor too: Not having a personal hobby (such as gardening).

In 2001, a team of British researchers from the Manchester University Institute of Science and Technology, led by now emeritus Professor Ivan Robertson, identified three key personality traits of people who are not accident-prone:

Openness: This is the tendency to learn from experience and to be open to suggestions from others. But the Robertson team cautions that too much openness can increase accident risk.
Dependability: This is the tendency to be conscientious and socially responsible.
Agreeableness: This is the tendency not to be aggressive or self-centered. The Robertson team argues that people with low levels of agreeableness tend to be highly competitive and less likely to, for example, comply with safety instructions.

Tags: accident, prone, health, luck, hereditary

Gene causing blindness in newbords found...

Wed, 11 Oct 2006 11:12:23 GMT

clipped by: coconutshell
clipper's remarks: It's a good start...it does raise the question of genetic ethics at the end.

Clip Source: healthandfitness.sympatico.msn.ca

McGill researchers find gene that's a leading cause of blindness in newborns

MONTREAL (CP) - Nearly three years after the devastating news that her baby boy was blind, Nadine Seed is hopeful the veil of darkness could one day be lifted.

Researchers at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal and the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands were able to identify the gene, CEP290, after testing the Quebec family, half of whom are blind.

In subsequent testing, researchers found the mutated gene present in 25 per cent of patients with the congenital disorder LCA (Leber congenital amaurosis).

Children with LCA lose their vision because the gene defects cause the cells in the eye to die or malfunction. They have trouble fixing on objects and their eyes appear to jiggle in their sockets.

The disorder affects one in 30,000 newborns. About 10,000 young Canadians and 150,000 people around the world suffer from the hereditary disease.

The first human gene replacement therapy trial for vision is slated to take place in Philadelphia in January on another LCA gene - RPE65.

If successful, it could lead to a treatment for the million patients around the world who suffer from juvenile and adult forms of the congenital ailment.

In animal studies, researchers have found 30 per cent of sight can be restored with gene therapy.

For families who fear giving birth to another blind child, in vitro fertilization coupled with genetic screening of embryos would dramatically reduce that risk.

But the option is not without controversy. There is a great deal of debate over screening of embryos for disease and genetic defect, a practice critics call unethical in part because it raises the spectre of sex selection.

Tags: blindess, babies, health, gene, newborns, cep290, leber congenital amaurosis, lca, rpe65