Clipmarks | kmcolo's 'health' clips

Summer Allergies: For Many, Nothing to Sneeze At

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:26:37 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: Food allergies are on the rise in the developing world. There is indication that doctors have given the wrong information in recommending that the very young avoid certain foods (such as nuts and peanuts) and maybe should recommend higher than 'normal' amounts.

An interesting interview.

Clip Source: www.npr.org

Your Health

Summer Allergies: For Many, Nothing to Sneeze At

Listen Now [16 min 37 sec] add to playlist

Dr. Hugh Sampson serves as director of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute. Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Fresh Air from WHYY, June 18, 2008 · Dr. Hugh Sampson knows just how deadly a peanut butter and jelly sandwich can be.

Sampson, an expert on food allergies, has just been elected president of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. He specializes in pediatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City and is also the principal investigator in the Food Allergy Resource Initiative.

Sampson provides guidance to allergy sufferers during this season of barbecues and clambakes.

Tags: podcast, fresh air, health allergies, food

Good news about $4 gas? Fewer traffic deaths

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:11:00 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: esciencenews.com

As unwelcome as they are, higher gasoline prices do come with a plus side – fewer deaths from car accidents, says a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). An analysis of yearly vehicle deaths compared to gas prices found death rates drop significantly as people slow down and drive less. If gas remains at $4 a gallon or higher for a year or more, traffic deaths could drop by more than 1,000 per month nationwide, said Michael Morrisey, Ph.D., director of UAB's Lister Hill Center for Health Policy and a co-author on the new findings.

The results come after earlier research by the coauthors found lower gas prices have the opposite effect by wiping away many of lifesaving outcomes from the enactment of mandatory seatbelt laws, lower blood alcohol limits and graduated drivers licenses for youth.

Tags: gasoline, health, safety, automobile

Omega-3 fatty acid may stop repeat stroke

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:09:14 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: www.reuters.com

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Eicosapentaenoic acid, or EPA -- the essential omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid abundant in oily fish -- may help protect stroke patients from suffering a second stroke, a Japanese study shows.

In a study of people with high cholesterol who were taking a low dose of a cholesterol-lowering "statin," researchers found that adding EPA did not reduce the occurrence of a first stroke but did lower recurrence rates in those with a history of stroke.

Tags: health, diet, omega-3

Tofu 'may raise risk of dementia'

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 14:17:35 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: Emphasis on may. note that there may be other factors and that one study does not make "the truth". Nonetheless an interesting potential health issue.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Eating high levels of some soy products - including tofu - may raise the risk of memory loss, research suggests.

The researchers found high tofu consumption - at least once a day - was associated with worse memory, particularly among the over-68s.

A third theory is that damage is caused not by the tofu, but by formaldehyde, which is sometimes used in Indonesia as a preservative.

The researchers admit that more research is required to ascertain whether the same effects are found in other ethnic groups.

Tags: diet, health, brain, food

Sunburn alert: UVB does more damage to DNA than UVA

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:39:39 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: esciencenews.com

a new research study published in the July 2008 issue of The FASEB Journal, scientists now know why one type of UV light (UVB) is more likely to cause skin cancer than the other (UVA). This information should be useful to public health officials and government regulatory agencies in identifying specific criteria for exactly how effective consumer products, like sunscreen, are in preventing skin damage leading to skin cancer.

UVB light is more harmful to our skin because our bodies are less able to repair the DNA damage it causes than the damage caused by UVA light.

"We know that sunlight causes skin cancer and that breakdown of the ozone layer exposes us to ever more ultraviolet radiation. This work tells us that both forms of UVA and UVB in sunlight cause damage to DNA. It forms a missing link in the chain of events from sun exposure to tumor formation,"

Tags: health, cancer, skin cancer

Raw Milk: Health Risks

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:52:03 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: www.findingdulcinea.com

Rare Form of Tuberculosis Reappears in California

The Mycobacterium bovis tuberculosis strain was essentially purged from the United States in the early 1900s, but it’s on the rise in southern California among Hispanic immigrant populations who produce and consume “bathtub cheese.”

Clip Source: www.kirotv.com

Couple Admits To Distributing E. coli-Tainted Milk

A Cowlitz County couple has pleaded guilty to distributing milk responsible for an E. coli outbreak in Washington and Oregon in 2005.

Tags: raw milk, food, health, milk

Health: Organic Milk

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:48:59 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: www.timesonline.co.uk

Leaving aside animal welfare considerations, intensively produced milk appears to be nutritionally depleted. “You are what you eat” turns out to apply as much to cows as to humans. On the basis of official tables on the composition of food, the iron content of milk appears to have dropped by more than 60% in 60 years. Milk also appears to have lost 2% of its calcium and 21% of its magnesium. Furthermore, recent studies have found that, on average, a pint of organic milk contained 68% more omega3 fatty acids than conventional milk.

Tags: health, food, organic, milk

FDA Taking a Look at Raw Milk

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:13:24 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: www.newsinferno.com

In 1938, milk was the cause of 25 percent of all food poisoning incidents. With the introduction of universal pasteurization—long considered one of the most successful public health endeavors of the last century—that number fell to one percent by 1993. Despite this, a growing number of dairy owners have been selling raw milk—some illegally—as part of the growing natural food movement.

Some believe raw milk contains organisms that treat all manner of maladies, including digestive problems, asthma, and autism and feel raw milk offers greater benefits because it allegedly does not contain chemicals and hormones found in many dairy products. This growing contingent says the heat necessary for pasteurization kills healthy natural proteins and enzymes.

Tags: raw milk, milk, diet, health

Wading in the waters: Spirituality and older black Katrina survivors

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:18:40 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: Author(s): Lawson EJ (Lawson, Erma J.), Thomas C (Thomas, Cecelia)
Source: JOURNAL OF HEALTH CARE FOR THE POOR AND UNDERSERVED Volume: 18 Issue: 2 Pages: 341-354 Published: MAY 2007

Clip Source: apps.isiknowledge.com

Hurricane Katrina has drawn increased interest in coping strategies, spirituality, and mental health among low-income Blacks.

Without exception, the findings indicate that this population coped with Katrina and its aftermath through reliance on a Higher Power. The relationship to a Higher Power did not necessarily translate into church membership.

1) regular communication with a supernatural power; 2) miracles of faith through this source of guidance and protection; 3) daily reading of the Bible and various spiritual and devotional materials; and 4) helping others as a consequence of faith and devotion to a supreme being.

This study indicates that spirituality promotes emotional resilience in the aftermath of traumatic events such as Hurricane Katrina. These findings also point to the need for researchers to reconsider expressions of spirituality based solely on church membership/attendance and prayer, and to consider redefining spiritual coping as a form of cultural capital.

Tags: resilience, katrina, faith

Slow Medicine: End of life care

Fri, 09 May 2008 13:27:10 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

HANOVER, N.H. — Edie Gieg, 85, strides ahead of people half her age and plays a fast-paced game of tennis. But when it comes to health care, she is a champion of “slow medicine,” an approach that encourages less aggressive — and less costly — care at the end of life.

slow medicine encourages physicians to put on the brakes when considering care that may have high risks and limited rewards for the elderly

Slow medicine, which shares with hospice care the goal of comfort rather than cure

Tags: health, death

Anti-depressants 'of little use'

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:00:30 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Anti-depressants 'of little use'

New generation anti-depressants have little clinical benefit for most patients, research suggests.

Marjorie Wallace, head of the mental health charity Sane, said that if these results were confirmed they could be "very disturbing".

But the makers of Prozac and Seroxat, two of the commonest anti-depressants, said they disagreed with the findings.

Tags: health, depression, medicine

Review: "The Red Wine Diet" # 2

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 19:53:46 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: tdh46.typepad.com

Color me red: High procyanidin wines = best for your heart

Now, though, I suspect we have the holy grail of wine-health, and it is the substance procyanidin, whose properties and effects are described clearly and convincingly by Roger Corder, a medical researcher in England. In his new book, The Red Wine Diet, Corder names names when it comes to high-procyanidin wines and producers, which makes it a useful early guide for the heart-conscious wine drinker.

By the way, even though the book ends with a lot of recipes and the usual diet-book stuff -- no doubt the publisher thought it would sell better as yet another miracle diet guide -- one of the best aspects of The Red Wine Diet is Corder's description of his investigational method and its hypotheses. When I say convincing, I mean it; this is not one of those half-baked, faith-based prescriptions for weight loss and long life.

Tags: health, diet, red wine, wine, procyanidin

Health: Procyanidins

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 19:38:02 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: Wine and chocolate, wine and chocolate! Oh, and apples and cranberry juice too.

Clip Source: jn.nutrition.org

Procyanidins are a subclass of flavonoids found in commonlyconsumed foods that have attracted increasing attention dueto their potential health benefits.

On average, chocolate and apples containedthe largest procyanidin content per serving (164.7 and 147.1mg, respectively) compared with red wine and cranberry juice(22.0 and 31.9 mg, respectively).

However, the procyanidin contentvaried greatly between apple samples (12.3–252.4 mg/serving)with the highest amounts on average observed for the Red Delicious(207.7 mg/serving) and Granny Smith (183.3 mg/serving) varietiesand the lowest amounts in the Golden Delicious (92.5 mg/serving)and McIntosh (105.0 mg/serving) varieties.

In conclusion, the current study demonstrated that commonlyconsumed foods and beverages, including chocolate, apples, cranberryjuice and wine, contain substantial amounts of procyanidins.

Tags: health, wine, chocolate, diet, procyanidins

Obama's Harry and Louise

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 18:44:43 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo
clipper's remarks: And destructive of health reform too. This is one out of the Republican books. Make your weakness your strength. But in doing so you denigrate the best policy. Is this the politics of hope?

Clip Source: www.prospect.org

The Obama campaign kept their hairstyles and barely even changed their clothing -- which is really quite unfair to Harry and Louise, who probably let go of the plaid years back. What's worse is that the argument they're making is applicable to any kind of universal health care arrangement, including the arrangements Obama himself will eventually have to adopt:

In the end, his plan is not universal, does not attempt to be, and is probably less generous in its affordability provisions than Clinton's. And even so, I wouldn't really care, as it's still a pretty good plan, except that he's decided to respond to the inadequacies of his own policy by fear-mongering against not only better policy, but the type of policy he's probably going to have to eventually adopt. It's very, very short-sighted.

Tags: obama, hillary, clinton, election, election08, politics

Clinton v Obama: Health Care

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:54:03 GMT

clipped by: kmcolo

Clip Source: www.slate.com

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are slugging it out over their respective health-care plans. It's a fairly pointless argument to begin with, because they both have pretty good proposals on the table.

Clip Source: www.thenation.com

Give New York Times columnist Paul Krugman a little credit for pointing out the uncomfortable fact that Illinois Senator Barack Obama is campaigning against universal health care.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

From the beginning, advocates of universal health care were troubled by the incompleteness of Barack Obama’s plan, which unlike those of his Democratic rivals wouldn’t cover everyone. But they were willing to cut Mr. Obama slack on the issue, assuming that in the end he would do the right thing.

Now, however, Mr. Obama is claiming that his plan’s weakness is actually a strength.

Tags: politics. election08, election, obama, hillary, clinton, health, healthcare