Health & WellnessS


Heart

Resistance exercise rules! Marathon running is bad for you, best to keep exercise to between 30 and 50 minutes a day

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High intensity exercise continued over hours and repeated regularly over years and decades "stretches" the heart

Marathon running is bad for you if you keep on doing it, doctors say.

One or a few is fine but after that it is best to restrict vigorous exercise to a maximum of 50 minutes a day they say.

High intensity exercise continued over hours and repeated regularly over years and decades "stretches" the heart, disrupting muscle fibres and causing micro-tears that do permanent damage.

There are signs of damage after a single marathon but these rapidly return to normal after a week. If the damage is repeated, however, it can eventually lead to scarring and stiffness.

Info

New alternative medicine laws

Acupuncture
© AlgarveResident
Practicing alternative medicine in Portugal will require a professional licence and higher education. The Portuguese government approved a law concerning unconventional therapies and alternative medicines, stipulating these can only be practiced by professionals with higher education qualifications and a public registered professional licence.

The new law was approved by the Council of Ministers, and establishes the legal regime entry for professionals working in acupuncture, homeopathy, osteopathy, naturopathy, phytotherapy and chiropractic.

As a result of guidelines by the World Health Organisation, the law establishes the six professional profiles for each one of the alternative medical practices, and determines that any practitioner in these areas must have third-level or higher education, with respective study areas specified by complementary laws.

Arrow Up

12-year old athletes being drug tested in school

Drug Testing
© NaturalSociety
How young is too young to be tested for drugs without cause? In case you didn't hear, schools across the country are pushing the envelope, testing children at younger and younger ages, all under the guise of keeping sports drug-free and protecting the youth. But many parents and experts are fighting back - saying that high-school and even middle-school kids shouldn't be subjected to such treatment.

According to a New York Times story, an estimated 14% of school districts across the country conduct drug testing of some sorts. Many of them only test athletes, while others test for any extra-curricular activities - including things like band and drama.

At least one family is fighting back, suing the Delaware Valley School District where their 12-year old daughter was told she would have to pee in a cup in order to participate in sports and the scrapbooking club. Her parents were irate when the 7th-grader brought home a permission slip that stated in order to participate, she would have to be tested.

"We wanted to do it to create a general awareness of drug prevention," said assistant superintendent Steve Klotz of the Maryville School District in Missouri. He echoes a common sentiment among school administrators who believe they are in the right by doing these tests.

Syringe

Recent evidence shows vaccinated kids account for 90 percent of cases of whooping cough

Vaccination
© PreventDisease
Vaccinated populations contract some of the highest rates of disease and more evidence on whooping cough is coming forward to support this claim. Whooping cough, or pertussis, is spreading across the entire US at rates at least twice as high as those recorded in 2011 and epidemiologists and health officials are even admitting that the vaccines may be the cause.

Officials at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say the best way to prevent pertussis is to get vaccinated. Yet data from the Vermont Department of Health (DOH) suggests that going through the pertussis vaccination regimen is not fixing the problem or warding off the highly contagious disease. If anything, it appears to be making it worse.

The United States is on track for more cases of whooping cough this year than in any other year since 1959.

Children receive the last dose of the vaccine, known as DTaP between ages 4 and 6. They get a booster shot in adolescence. But the problem with the DTaP vaccine according to a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine, is that the vaccine is not effective after a certain period of time, and many are now speculating that its effectiveness is nil from the very first injection in the series. The study compared 277 children, ages 4 to 12, and found that a child's odds of contracting pertussis increased 42 percent every year after the fifth dose.

The new study joins several others in the last few years in suggesting that children ages 7 to 10 have less immune protection against whooping cough. But this the first study to estimate how much the vaccine's effectiveness declines after the multiple doses, the researchers said.

Health

Surprising cause found for woman's wonky pupils

Eye
© IKO, Shutterstock
When the pupil of one eye, but not the other, dilates abnormally or does not respond to light, doctors might suspect a nerve problem, or an aneurysm.

But in the case of one 35-year-old woman with an abnormally dilated pupil, the culprit turned out to be an over-the-counter medication she was using to treat her facial perspiration, according to a report on her case.

The woman's spouse was a paramedic, and had noticed that one of her pupils was dilated when she woke up that morning. Doctors in the emergency room found that her left pupil measured 4 millimeters across, and responded to light. But her right pupil was twice that size, and didn't respond to light.

She also had a mild headache, but no eye pain, trauma to her eye or change in vision. She initially reported that she was not taking any medications. About a year earlier, she'd suffered chronic headaches and had been diagnosed with a benign cyst on her brain, but a new MRI showed the cyst hadn't grown, and so could not explain her pupil problem.

After further questioning, the patient said she regularly used medicated wipes to control hyperhidrosis, or excessive sweating, on her scalp and forehead. The wipes contained a drug called glycopyrrolate, and were purchased from a Canadian pharmacy.

People 2

US birth rate hits a record low

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© Unknown
The rate of babies born in the United States hit a record low in 2011, a new analysis shows. Researchers say the drastic drop in the birth rate among immigrants has greatly contributed to the overall decrease.

Based on preliminary data from the National Center for Health Statistics, the Pew Research Center calculated that the overall birth rate - the annual number of births per 1,000 women between 15 to 44 - was 63.2 last year. That's the lowest since such reliable record collection began in 1920 and close to half the birth rate in 1957, amid the Baby Boom years.

The overall number of births declined 7 percent from 2007 to 2010. During this period, U.S.-born women saw a 5 percent birth-rate decline, while there was a 13 percent drop in births to immigrants. The drop was even more dramatic for Mexican immigrant women, at 23 percent.

Bacon

Eating meat is associated with better mental health

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This study was published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 2012 Jun 7;9(1):67

Study title and authors:

'Vegetarian diet and mental disorders: results from a representative community survey'.
Michalak J, Zhang XC, Jacobi F.

This study can be accessed here.

The study investigated the association between meat eaters or vegetarians and mental disorders. The study included 4,181 participants, aged 18 to 65 years and examined the prevalence rates of mental disorders at one month, 12 months and lifetime.

Info

Forget coffee in the morning, green tea has the key to the ultimate boost

Green Tea
© PreventDisease
Use your morning java as a quick pick me up before work? Forget coffee - it seems green tea has the key. A new study has found that the tea - already credited with providing a host of health benefits and can help improve memory and cognition.

Green tea is made solely from the leaves of Camellia sinensis that have undergone minimal oxidation during processing. It has become the raw material for extracts which are used in various beverages, health foods, dietary supplements, and cosmetic items. Users should be aware the some sources of green tea may contain excess levels of fluoride.

Researchers recruited 12 healthy men and divided them into two groups.

One group was given a drink containing a green tea extract, while a second group was given a placebo drink without the extract.

Then, using an MRI machine, scientists studied the effects of the two drinks on the men's brains while they performed a memory test.

Compared to the placebo group, the green tea drinkers experienced an increase in the activation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain associated with working memory, which you need for problem solving and focus.

The results of the new study are reported in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Health

Statin drugs linked to worsening osteoarthritis of the knee

Knee Osteoarthritis
© GreenMedInfo
New research flies in the face of a new theory that statin drugs, used to lower cholesterol, may be of value in those suffering from osteoarthritis.

To the contrary, statin drugs are likely contributing to the epidemic of knee osteoarthritis in exposed populations.

Symptomatic knee osteoarthritis is quite common in people older than 40 years, and will affect nearly 1 in 2 people by the age of 85 years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.[i]


Basic symptoms include
  • Pain
  • Stiffness
  • Muscle weakness and atrophy
  • Decreased range of motion
Common causes or contributing factors include
  • "Wear and tear," associated with age
  • Trauma
  • Poor nutrition, e.g. lack of synovial fluid and collagen nutritional co-factors (for instance, omega-3 fats and vitamin C).
  • Wheat lectin, and other chitin-binding lectin rich foods.
Now, new research indicates that statin drugs are contributing to the worsening of the epidemic of knee osteoarthritis (OA).

Arrow Up

Danger where you least expect it: Toxic chemicals banned in the 1970s found in many U.S. couches

Sofa
© Medical Daily
A new study says that more than a third of all sofas in the United States may contain potential toxic material that can be dangerous for people to inhale as furniture foam breaks down into dust.

Researchers from Duke University and University of California-Berkeley tested 104 couches and found that 85 percent of the couches were treated with chemical flame-retardants.

Furthermore, researchers found that 41 percent contained chlorinated tris (TDCPP), which was phased out from use in baby pajamas and clothes in 1977 because of the health risks, and 17 percent of the sofas tested contained pentaBDE, a flame-retardant which has been banned in 172 counties and in 12 U.S. states.

Researchers said exposure to pentaBDE has been linked to low birth weight, lower IQs and abnormal motor and behavioral development.

In California, in order for furniture makers to abide by flammability standard called Technical Bulletin 117, which states that all residential furniture sold in California must not ignite when exposed to a 12-second exposure to an open flame, manufacturers treat sofa foam padding with retardants.