January 27th, 2010 by StaceyButterfield in Better Health Network, News, Research
Tags: Deployment, Depression, Diabetes, Diet, Internal Medicine, Mental Health, Ophthalmology, Spouses, War
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This week’s obvious news consists of findings that you might have hoped weren’t true, but really you already knew they were.
First, sending your spouse off to war will make you unhappy, according to the New England Journal. “Among wives of soldiers deployed for up to 11 months, researchers found almost 3,500 more diagnoses of depression, anxiety, sleep disorders and other mental health issues than among wives who husbands stayed home,” reported HealthDay. Guess these women actually liked their husbands!
Then, it turns out that diabetics should not pig out, especially on salt, according to the Archives of Ophthalmology via HealthDay. A study of black patients with diabetes found that those who ate more calories and more sodium were more likely to develop diabetic retinopathy. “These results suggest that low caloric and sodium intakes in African-American individuals with type 1 diabetes mellitus…might be part of dietary recommendations for this population,” the authors concluded. Shoot, now we will have throw out those “hot dog a day keeps the doctor away” guidelines.
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*
January 25th, 2010 by David Kroll, Ph.D. in Better Health Network, Book Reviews, Research
Tags: #Scio10, African American Culture, Cervical Cancer, Public Health, Rebecca Skloot, ScienceOnline, stem cells, The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks
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This past weekend’s international science communication conference, ScienceOnline2010, also saw the first, final hardback copies of Rebecca Skloot’s long-awaited book make it into the hands of the science and journalism consuming public. Moreover, an excerpt of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks has just appeared in the new issue of Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine. And already, those online science communicators who left the conference with Skloot’s book are registering their praise via this Twitter feed that was so active it was a trending topic at the science aggregator, SciencePond.
The story of the rural, Virginia woman who descended from slaves and developed cervical cancer in the early 1950s is notable most obviously for her tumors giving rise to HeLa, the first immortalized human cell line continuously maintained in culture. I have noted previously my enthusiasm for this story as both a long-time admirer of Skloot’s writing and the fact that HeLa played a central role in my PhD thesis work and first papers from my independent laboratory. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Terra Sigillata*
January 22nd, 2010 by Happy Hospitalist in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Research
Tags: Australia, Cardiology, Heart Disease, Internal Medicine, Lifestyle Choices, Risk of Death, Sedentary Lifestyles, Television, TV
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If you’ve spent anytime on The Happy Hospitalist in the last two years, you know I am a strong believer in lifestyle as the only solution to an economic disaster we find ourselves in. One recently reported television health statistic confirms, once again, the strong correlation between lifestyle and early death.
I blogged previously about studies showing an 80% reduction in heart disease, strokes, cancer and diabetes by adhering to lifestyle choices proven to save lives. America is a nation of couch potatoes. Everyday I see families, doctors and nurses taking the elevator up on story to the next floor above. What ever happened to using the stairs for a little self sacrifice?
The television health statistics in this country are alarming. How many hours a week do Americans spend watching television? 1 How does 31 hours a week sound. That’s amazing. I have one or two shows a week that I watch, if I’m lucky. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Happy Hospitalist Blog*
January 21st, 2010 by Medgadget in Better Health Network, Research
Tags: Drop-Down Menus, Google, Men and Women, Psychology, Technology, The Way We Think, What We Think About
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A post on Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational draws our attention to Google as a source of data for all sorts of research into human emotions. Dan Ariely, the James B. Duke Professor of Behavioral Economics at Duke University, believes that by using drop down suggestions in Google, we can gain insights into “what people might care the most about concerning a given topic. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Medgadget*
January 21st, 2010 by Steve Novella, M.D. in Better Health Network, Research
Tags: Ban, Behavior, Hypertension, Low-Salt Diet, New York, Nutrition, Primary Care, Salt, Science, Sodium
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The problem with the Western diet is not one of deficiency, but one of excess. We get too much of a good thing – too many calories, too much of the wrong kind of fat, and too much salt. As a result obesity, diabetes, and hypertension are growing health problems.
There also does not appear to be an easy solution – voluntary diets founded primarily on will power are notoriously ineffective in the long term. Add to that is the marketplace of misinformation that makes it challenging for the average person to even know where to apply their (largely ineffective) will power.
It can be argued that this is partly a failure, or an unintended consequence, of market forces. Food products that provide cheap calories and are tasty (sweet, fatty, or salty) sell well and provide market incentives to sell such products. Consumers then get spoiled by the cheap abundance of tempting foods, even to the point that our perspective on appropriate portion sizes have been super-sized. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
