August 27th, 2011 by Paul Auerbach, M.D. in Health Tips, Opinion
Tags: abnormal heart rhythms, Acquired Heart Abnormality, Athletes, Brain Aneurysm, Congenital Heart Abnormality, ECG, EKG, Heart Abnormailty, Heart Failure, idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis, Mass Screening, Outdoor Activities, Physical Examinations, Routine Laboratory Testing, Seizure Disorder, Stress Test, Sudden Adverse Health Events, Young People
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Increasing numbers of young people participate in outdoor activities, including strenuous competitive athletics. In so doing, they subject their bodies to stresses that are more intense and prolonged than those presented by a largely sedentary life. Every story of a sudden death in a young person is a tragedy, and usually accompanied by commentary pondering the role and utility of pre-activity screening. Could the death have been prevented? What was the physiological condition of the deceased? Could the collapse, often attributed to a heart problem, have been predicted? Was there an examination or evaluation that might have indicated that the deceased was at greater risk, or should have been held out of the activity? These are all important questions, with no simple answers.
Sudden collapse and cardiac arrest in a young person seems wrong. It shouldn’t happen. It is a parent’s worst nightmare. Similar horrors occur on the freeway when a teenage driver is killed, or at the beach when a surfer is tossed in a monster wave and drowned. We know a great deal about injury prevention; much of our teaching and experience points to errors in judgment. But the situation is different when the seemingly healthy slumps to the ground without a pulse. That person has been taken by surprise in a cruel act of fate.
Sometimes we learn that the victim had Read more »
This post, The Importance Of Physicals For Young Athletes, was originally published on
Healthine.com by Paul Auerbach, M.D..
August 24th, 2011 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Health Tips
Tags: Aerobic Exercise, Athletes, Athletic Heart, Duration of contraction and relaxation, Early Repolarization, ECG, Electrodes, Exercise, Heart, Hypertrophy, QRS, Rate, Rhythm, Sudden Death
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It may seem a little formal to say this, but I would like to start by stating my goals for today’s post:
- Introduce the concept of the athletic heart;
- Touch upon the notion of sudden death of the athlete;
- Explain what an ECG really is, and how it may help diagnose heart disease;
- Review a recent study about the common ECG variant seen in athletes…Early repolarization.
Intro: The adaptations of the human heart never cease to amaze me. Physical training transforms our hearts into high performance engines. Repeated sessions of interval training, combined with longer aerobic efforts, and sprinkled with adequate rest maximize our ability to keep pressure on the pedals, or run the sixth mile of the 10k at the same pace as the first, or for you swimmers, to keep getting back to the wall on the 1:15 mark.
Fitness also brings measurable changes in things we can observe. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
August 24th, 2011 by admin in Health Tips
Tags: Athletes, Downed Electrical Lines, Downed Trees, Extreme Temperatures, Fast-Moving Currents, Flooding, Fluids, Heat, Heat Wave, Heat-Related Illness, Hot Vehicles, Hurricane, Hydration, Injury Avoidance, Lightning, perspiration, Thunder, Thunderstorm, Water
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It may seem rather unusual to talk about injuries and weather in the same context, but extreme weather can pose significant risks for many kinds of injury. Currently, many parts of the United States are experiencing a major heat wave, with record-setting heat and heat indices over the next few weeks. As we have seen in the recent past, deaths are occurring from heat-related and possibly from participation in outside activities that increase the risk of heat-related illness.
During the month of August, many athletes train for the fall sports season, sometimes participating in two practices a day over the course of a few weeks. While training is necessary and important for athletes to build up their stamina and to improve their performance, health consequences can be deadly if Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at CDC Injury Center: Director's View Blog*
August 24th, 2011 by admin in Health Tips, Research
Tags: Cancer, CDC, Cigarette Smoking, Diabetes, Disease, Environment, Environmental Factors, Gene-Environment Interactions, Genetics, Genomics, Healthy Diet, Heart Disease, Nature Vs. Nurture, Preventive Measures, Psychiatry, Risk Factors, Sedentary Lifestyle
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A recent article in the Archives of General Psychiatry by Hallmayer et al. discussed the role of genetic and environmental factors in autism and autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The study was a heritability analysis of 192 pairs of twins, which attributed 37 percent of the variation in risk of autism to genetic factors and 55 percent to shared environmental factors. The authors contrasted their findings with those of previous studies, which had given genetics a much higher share (up to 90%).
Rather than contradicting previous research, the new results provide more evidence that autism, like many other common diseases, results from both genetic and environmental factors. The way that these elements – often called “nature and nurture” – influence health outcomes has been discussed for decades but is often misunderstood, even among scientists.
Disease Causation is Not as Easy as… Pie Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Genomics and Health Impact Blog*
August 20th, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in Health Tips, Research
Tags: Antioxidant, Black Pepper, Cinnamon, Cloves, Diabetes, Diet, Garlic Powder, Hyperlipidemia, Journal of Nutrition, Nutrition, Obesity, Orac, Oregano, Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity, Paprika, Phenolic Compounds, Research, Rosemary, Spices, Triglycerides, Tumeric
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The Mediterranean diet has a new competitor, the spicy diet. Antioxidant spices may reduce the triglyceride response of a high-fat meal by 30% compared to the same meal without them, concluded a study.
The antioxidant potential of spices stems from their phenolic compounds, the authors wrote. Also, some spices increase the blood plasma concentrations of others, and spices are typically eaten as blends, making them good targets to study. Turmeric, cinnamon, rosemary, oregano, black pepper, cloves, garlic powder and paprika were on the short list that researchers examined.
The study compared results in Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Internist*
