The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issues an annual report on the state of health in the United States. The 33rd edition is out and has some surprising findings, especially about the use of procedures, tests and medical technology.
The life expectancy in the United States is now 77.9 years. Are you over that age? If so, congratulations — you beat the odds. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
Do a search on the Internet for “high blood pressure” or “hypertension” and you’ll find that nearly every health website recommends the DASH diet to control blood pressure. It makes some sense: If sodium and saturated fat cause high blood pressure, then removing them from your diet should make it come back down.
But changing your eating habits is easier said than done. It’s easy to say you want to cut down on fat and sodium, but it’s hard to resist a hot slice of Chicago-style pizza piled high with sausage and cheese. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The Daily Monthly*
One advantage of having a blog is that I can sometimes tap into the knowledge of my readers to help me out.
As many readers know, a few of the SBM bloggers (myself included) will be appearing at the Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism (NECSS) today (Saturday, April 17). Since the topic of our panel discussion is going to be the infiltration of quackademic medicine into medical academia, I thought that now would be a very good time for me to update my list of medical schools and academic medical centers in the U.S. and Canada that have embraced (or at least decided to tolerate) quackademic medicine in their midst. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Science-Based Medicine*
I recently come across BodyTrace, a nice way to combine a bathroom scale that wirelessly uploads and displays your weight and BMI and a website where you can track all the changes with visualized solutions. An excerpt from the description:
We are using the GSM network to transmit your weight to our website. We use these measurements to create weight and BMI charts and by combining this information with additional data that we collect (from food tracker, for example) we can better evaluate your progress and give you feedback on how to reach your goals.
They also have a collaboration with DailyBurn. You can read the whole story from the first idea on the blog.
See more examples of how Web 2.0 or social media can be used in fitness here.
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
Research from the University of Michigan suggests that say one in three middle school youth who regularly eat school lunches are obese or overweight. They are also more likely to have higher cholesterol levels than kids who bring lunches from home.
The study included 1,076 middle school students who completed questionnaires about what they ate and how much physical activity they got as well as how many screen hours they logged each day.
Compared with kids who ate school lunches, kids who brought lunches from home were:
– Less likely to be overweight or obese (25% vs 38%)
– Less likely to eat two or more servings of fatty meats like fried chicken or hot dogs daily (2% vs. 6%)
– Less likely to drink two or more sugary drinks a day (7% vs. 19%)
– More likely to eat at least two servings a day of fruit (49% vs. 33%)
– More likely to eat at least two servings a day of vegetables (50% vs. 40%)
– Had lower levels of LDL (the bad cholesterol) Read more »
This post, Kids Who Eat School Lunch Are Less Healthy In General, was originally published on Healthine.com by Nancy Brown, Ph.D..
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