June 26th, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, News, Research
Tags: BMI, Body Mass Index, Caloric Restriction, Counting Calories, Dietetics, Harvard Researchers, Ideal Weight, Inactive, JAMA, Journal of the American Medical Association, Kinesiology, Middle-Aged Women, National Institutes of Health, NIH, Older Women, Physical Activity, Physical Exercise, Prevent Weight Gain, Weight Changes, Weight Control, Weight Loss, Weight Management, Women's Health Study
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Talk about a cruel trick of nature! A study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows that physical activity prevents weight gain in middle-aged and older women ONLY IF THEY ARE ALREADY AT IDEAL WEIGHT. Did you read that? It means that the recommended guidelines advocating 150 minutes of exercise a week isn’t sufficient to prevent weight gain in most middle-aged women.
The Harvard-associated researchers assessed weight changes associated with various levels of physical activity on 34,079 women who had been followed since 1992 in the Women’s Health Study. They stratified women as “inactive” (less than 150 minutes a week of moderate level physical activity), “intermediately active,” or “highly active” if they performed a high, strenuous level of activity. All three groups showed similar weight gain over a mean of 13 years of follow up. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
June 26th, 2010 by KerriSparling in Better Health Network, Book Reviews, Health Tips, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Cheryl Alkon, Endocrinology, Gestational Diabetes, Healthy Baby, Healthy Mom, Moms-To-Be, Obstetrics And Gynecology, Pre-Existing Diabetes, Prediabetes, Pregnancy, Prenatal Care, Six Until Me, Type 1 Diabetes, Type 2 Diabetes, Women's Health
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For anyone who has been reading my blog since my engagement three years ago, you know that motherhood has been on my radar for a long time. Longer than marriage. That quest for a decent A1C, that desire for a “normal” pregnancy, and that hope for a happy and healthy baby.
Part of the reason I wanted to write about my pregnancy here on SUM is because there wasn’t a lot of information out there about pre-existing diabetes and pregnancy. There was a LOT of information on gestational diabetes (obviously), and type 2 diabetes got some good press, but type 1 diabetes was sort of swept under the rug. Thankfully, there were a few diabetes bloggers who had chronicled their journeys, and I wanted to add my voice to that hopeful chorus.
But also thankfully, Cheryl Alkon had taken the topic to her publisher, and she penned the first book on managing pre-existing diabetes and pregnancy. And I’m very honored to have been both featured in her book (as a woman preparing for pregnancy) and to have her contributing here on Six Until Me (SUM). Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Six Until Me.*
June 26th, 2010 by AndrewSchorr in Better Health Network, Opinion, True Stories
Tags: Andrew Schorr, Apps, Books on the Internet, Electronic Books, Empowering Patients, Health-Conscious Consumers, Healthcare Consumers, iPhone IV, Multi-Format, Multi-Media, New York Publishing World, Non-Fiction, Online Books, Online Health World, Patient Empowerment, Patient Power, Print Publishing, Smartphones, Technology Gap, The Web Savvy Patient, Web-Based Publishing
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The book publishing world, largely based in New York City, is in trouble. The fragmentation of the market by electronics large and small has chopped former readers into so many pieces. How can a publisher make a blockbuster buck anymore? The answer may come in translations of Swedish fiction from a newly-found novelist, now dead, to non-fiction ghostwritten for a face everyone knows from the evening news.
In a whirlwind face-to-face series of meeting with publishers on a very recent sunny Tuesday in Manhattan, I got a glimpse of their angst and did my best to convince them that a book — yes, even all sorts of electronic versions and in-the-palm-of-your-hand “apps” — could make them boatloads of money and do the right thing for America’s healthcare consumer (just maybe such a work could be translated into Swedish and do good there in a return of the favor literary effort). Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Andrew's Blog*
June 26th, 2010 by KevinMD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Health Tips, Opinion, Research
Tags: Amy Ship, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Cellphones, Cognitive Function, Distracted Drivers, Doctor-Patient Communication, Family Medicine, General Medicine, Hands-Free Device, Internal Medicine, Multitask, Neurology, Neurons, New England Journal of Medicine, Preventive Health, Preventive Medicine, Primary Care, Public Awareness, Public Health, Public Safety, Text And Drive, Traffic Accidents
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It’s time to ask patients whether they text and drive. An important perspective piece from the New England Journal of Medicine urges doctors to include that question during preventive health exams. The data surrounding texting and driving is grim:
Although there are many possible distractions for drivers, more than 275 million Americans own cell phones, and 81% of them talk on those phones while driving. The adverse consequences have reached epidemic proportions. Current data suggest that each year, at least 1.6 million traffic accidents (28% of all crashes) in the United States are caused by drivers talking on cell phones or texting. Talking on the phone causes many more accidents than texting, simply because millions more drivers talk than text; moreover, using a hands-free device does not make talking on the phone any safer.
The author of the piece, Amy Ship from Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, says that doctors should update traditional preventive questions to keep up with the times. The simple question, “Do you text while you drive?” is a way to start this important conversation. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at KevinMD.com*
June 26th, 2010 by Jeffrey Benabio, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, True Stories
Tags: beach, Dermatology, DermDoc, Dr. Jeff Benabio, Equator, High Altitude, Limiting Sun Exposure, Mirrored Lake, Mountains, Outdoor Medicine, Skin Cancer Prevention, Sun's Intensity, Sun's Rays, Sunburn, Sunlight, Ultraviolet Light, Ultraviolet Radiation, UV Exposure
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While vacationing in Idaho and Montana last week (blissfully off the grid), I experienced something beautiful: altitude. At 6,260 feet Stanley, Idaho is a mile higher than my home in San Diego. The skies there were a brilliant blue. There was daylight well after 10PM. The mornings were a chilly 35 degrees. And I got sunburned.
How can this be? Montana is over 1,000 miles north of San Diego. Shouldn’t the sun be stronger down here? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Dermatology Blog*
