Tuesday, 31 August 2010

The fact about 12 health myths


In a 2002 German revise, researchers found that the burning process produces a novel type of cancer-fighting antioxidant in bread that is eight times more plentiful in the crust than in the crumb. Breads simply labeled "wheat" are frequently made with a combination of enriched white flour and whole-wheat flour and have less fiber.

If You are Go Out With Wet Hair, You'll Catch a Cold:

The truth is: You will suffer cold but will be just fine healthwise, says Jim Sears, a board-certified pediatrician in San Clemente, California, and a cohost of the daytime-TV show The Doctors. Half the group stayed in a temperate room while the rest took a bath and stood dripping wet in a entry for half an hour, then got undressed but wore wet socks for a few more hours. The wet group did not catch any more colds than the dry. Sears's conclusion: "Feeling cold doesn't affect your immune system."

If You Cross Your Eyes, They will Stay That Way:

The truth is: "There's no harm in charitable eye crossing," says W. Walker Motley, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. But if you notice your child doing this a lot, he might have other vision problems.

You Should supply a Cold and Starve a Fever:


The truth is: In both cases, eat and drink, then drink some more. "Staying hydrated is the most significant thing to do, because you lose a lot of fluids when you're ill," says Sears, who adds that there's no need for special beverages containing electrolytes (like Gatorade) except you are severely dehydrated from vomiting or diarrhea.

chewing gum Stays in Your Stomach for Seven Years:


The truth is: Your Little Leaguer's wad of Big League Chew won't (literally) stick about until high school graduation. "As with most nonfood objects that kids swallow, fluids carry gum through the intestinal tract, and within days it passes," says David Pollack, a older physician in the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Care Network. And even although gum isn't easily broken down in the digestive system, it probably won't cause a stomachache, either.

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away:

The truth is: A handful of blueberries a day will keep the doctor away more efficiently. Blueberries are a nutritional jackpot, rich in antioxidants and fiber, and they are also easy to toss into cereal and yogurt. That said, eating a mixture of fruits and vegetables is important to prevent many chronic illnesses, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes, down the road.

You Lose 75 Percent of Your Body Heat throughout Your Head:

The truth is: "This proverb was probably based on an infant's head size, which is a much greater percentage of the total body than an adult head," says Pollack. That's why it is important to make sure an infant's head residue covered in cold weather. But for an adult, the figure is additional like 10 percent. And keep in mind that heat escapes from any uncovered area (feet, arms, hands), so putting on a hat is no more important than slipping on gloves.

To Get Rid of Hiccups, Have Someone Startle You:

The truth is: Mainly home remedies, like holding your breath or drinking from a glass of water backward, haven't been medically proven to be effective, says Pollack. However, you can try this trick dating back to 1971, when it was available in The New England Journal of Medicine: Swallow one teaspoon of white granulated sugar. According to the study, this method resulted in the cessation of hiccups in 19 out of 20 afflicted patients. Sweet.

Eating Fish Makes You Smart:

The truth is: For kids up to age three or four, this is certainly the case. Fish, especially oily ones, such as salmon, are filled with omega-3 fatty acids, including DHA (docosahexaenoic acid). "DHA is particularly beneficial in the first two years of life for brain development, cognition, and visual acuity," says Beverly Hills pediatrician Scott W. Cohen, the author of Eat, Sleep, Poop: A Common Sense Guide to Your Baby's First Year ($16, amazon.com). And a 2008 study in Clinical Pediatrics showed an increase in vocabulary and comprehension for four-year-olds who be given daily DHA supplements. Omega-3 options for the fish-phobic? Try avocados, walnuts, and canola oil.

You Shouldn't Swim for an Hour once Eating:
 
The truth is: Splash away. "After you eat, more blood flows to the digestive system and away from the muscles," says Cohen. "The thinking was that if you exercised persistently right after eating, that lack of blood would cause you to cramp up and drown." But that won't happen. Sears concurs: "You might have less energy to swim energetically, but it shouldn't slow down your ability to tread water or play."

Every Child must Needs a Daily Multivitamin:
 
The truth is: Children who are only breast-fed during their first year should be given a vitamin D supplement. After that, a multivitamin won't injure anyone, but many experts say that even if your child is in a picky phase, there's no need to sneak Fred, Wilma, and company into his applesauce. "Even mainly fussy eaters grow normally," Cohen says. "Your kids will finally get what they need, even if it seems as if they're subsisting on air and sunlight."

Warm Milk Will Help You go down Asleep:

The truth is: Milk contains small amounts of tryptophan (the same amino acid in turkey), "but you would have to drink gallons to get any soporific result," says Michael Breus, a clinical psychologist in Scottsdale, Arizona, who specializes in sleep disorders. "What is efficient is a routine to help kids wind down," he says. And if a glass of warm milk is part of the process, it can have a placebo effect, in spite of of science.

Casual Sex Can be Lead to Long-Term Relationships


People who "hook up" for casual sex can have as rewarding a long-term relationship as those who take it slowly and establish a meaningful connection before they have sex, says a new study. University of Iowa researchers analyzed relationship surveys and found that average relationship quality was higher for people who took it slowly than for those who became sexually involved in "hook-ups," casual dating, or "friends with benefits" relationships.
However, having sex early on wasn't the reason for this disparity, according to UI sociologist Anthony Paik. When he factored out people who weren't interest in getting serious, he establish that those who became sexually involved as friends or acquaintances and were open to a serious relationship were just as happy as those who dated but delayed having sex.
The study analyzed a review of 642 heterosexual adults in Chicago. To calculate the quality of the relationships, people answered questions about how much they loved their partner, their level of approval with confidence in the relationship, the future of the relationship, and how their lives would be different if the relationship ended.
"We didn't see much proof that relationships were lower quality because they started off as hook-ups," Paik, an follower professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, said in a UI news release.
"The study suggests that pleasing relationships are possible for those who delay sex. But it's also possible for true love to appear if things start off with a more 'Sex and the City' approach, when people spot each other across the room, become sexually concerned and then build a relationship," he added.
The study is published in the August issue of the magazine Social Science Research.

Monday, 30 August 2010

Indication of Heart Attack, Stroke Risk From Fat-Filled Artery


A quantity of factors put patients with irregular fatty deposits in an artery at high risk for heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular death, a new study shows. Patients in different stages of this condition atherothrombosis  are at enlarged risk for heart attack and stroke stemming from cheap blood flow from the artery blockage, but some are at better risk than others. In an analysis of more than 45,000 patients, the researchers found that patients with abnormal fatty deposits in an artery were at highest risk if they had a prior history of heart attack or other emergencies linked to an artery blockage.
Reduction of the arteries in various locations also greatly increased the risk for patients with atherothrombosis, as did diabetes for all the patients even those with only the risk factors for atherothrombosis.
Perceptive that these factors boost the risk can help physicians take preventive action, according to the researchers, who are from the VA Boston Healthcare System, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston.
The researchers analyzed data from 45,227 patients enrolled in an worldwide study known as Reduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health (REACH) between 2003 and 2004. They collected detailed information from the patients when they enrolled and conducted follow-ups one, two, three and four years later.
They establish that 81.3 percent of the patients had hypertension, 70.4 percent had high cholesterol levels in the blood, and 15.9 percent had polyvascular disease. In adding, 48.4 percent of the patients had "ischemic events" prior heart attacks, unstable angina or other problems related to the artery blockage, with 28.1 percent of those patients having had such an event within the previous year.
During the follow-up period, 2,315 patients suffered cardiovascular death, 1,228 had a heart attack, 1,898 had a stroke, and 40 had a heart attack and a stroke on the similar day.
The researchers establish that patients with atherothrombosis with a previous history of heart attacks and other events related to a blood vessel blockage had the highest rate of following cardiac emergencies linked to blood flow problems. Patients with stable heart, cerebrovascular or peripheral route disease had a lower risk, while the risk was lowest amongst those with risk factors for atherothrombosis but without established disease.
The results show that "there is a entire spectrum of [emergencies relating to artery blockage and blood flow] in patients with risk factors or with recognized cardiovascular disease easily ascertainable clinical characteristics are the famous factors associated with a high risk of future ischemic events," they fulfilled.

Sunday, 29 August 2010

Potential effects of Asthma-Like Symptoms Spotted in Mice

Results may lead to new treatments for people with severe forms of the airway disorder, researchers say, a possible inherited basis for severe asthma has been recognized by researchers, and although the findings are based on a study in mice, the discovery may someday help people.
Asthma rates have been growing in recent years. In inclined people, the illness can be triggered by a number of environmental factors, including cigarette smoke, allergens and air pollution, senior researcher Marsha Wills-Karp, director of the division of immunobiology at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, noted in a hospital news release.
In their revise, the researchers found that an inflammation-causing protein called interleukin-17 (IL-17A) is the major cause of severe asthma-like symptoms in pests. The animals used in the study had been bred to have a genetic similarity to humans with severe susceptibility to asthma.
The finding "suggests that at some point it may be possible to treat or prevent strict forms of asthma by inhibiting pathways that drive the production of IL-17A," Wills-Karp said in the news release.
Scientists naturally caution, however, that many discoveries in animal models do not translate into therapies for humans.

Saturday, 28 August 2010

8 cancer symbols highlighted

There are eight signs, symptoms or test consequences that could improve early diagnosis of some cancers, British doctors said,
The researchers focused on changes that gave a one in 20 or higher chance of rotating out to be cancer.
The symptoms contain:
Coughing up blood.
Rectal blood.
• Breast lump or mass.
• Difficulty swallowing.
• Post-menopausal bleeding.
• Abnormal prostate tests.
• Anemia.
• Blood in urine.

In certain age and sex groups, the eight symptoms or findings point to the require for urgent examination by family doctors, Dr. Mark Shapley and colleagues from Keele University (halfway between Manchester and Birmingham) said in Friday's online issue of the British Journal of General Practice.
The conclusion was based on an study of 25 studies from the U.K., U.S., Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, Denmark and Germany.
The age of the patient is significant, said Dr. Kevin Barraclough, a GP from Stroud.
"Iron deficiency anemia in a 21-year old female is really unlikely to be due to colorectal cancer, whereas in a 60-year old male, cancer is likely," Barraclough wrote in a journal editorial accompanying the study.
The red flags support the importance of encouraging patients to discuss worrying symptoms early with their GP, said Prof. Amanda Howe, honorary secretary of the Royal College of General Practitioners, which publishes the magazine.

Throat cancer rates rise in men


Throat cancer cases have soared by 50 per cent in men in the last 25 years due to fatness and bad diet, researchers have found. Back in the eighties approximately 2,600 men were diagnosed with oesophageal cancer every year but now the figure is more than 5,100.
The most theatrical rise was among men in their 50s, as rates increased by 67 per cent over the same period.
Rates in women also rose, but simply by eight per cent, from 5.1 to 5.5 per 100,000 people. “But we think the obesity outbreak may be a big reason behind the augment. We know that being overweight considerably increases the risk of adenocarcinoma – the main type of oesophageal cancer that’s on the up. Our shifting diets are also likely to be influencing the rise with people eating less fruit and vegetables."
In 1983, 9.6 in every 100,000 men were diagnosed with oesophageal cancer but now 14.4 in every 100,000 men are diagnosed with the disease – an enlarge of 50 per cent. Oesophageal cancer is the ninth most familiar cancer in the UK. In 2007, around 8,000 people were diagnosed with oesophageal cancer, counting 5,226 men.
The risk of rising the disease increases with age and affects very few people under 40. Oesophageal cancer is one of the most complicated cancers to detect and treat, with only eight per cent of people with the disease ongoing at least five years. Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: “These new figures are principally concerning as oesophageal cancer is a very difficult cancer to treat.
"Oesophageal cancer rates have risen considerably in the UK compared with many other Western countries so we need to determine the underlying causes.
"To struggle the poor survival rate for oesophageal cancer, Cancer Research UK is funding research to find new ways to identify the disease earlier and improve treatment so that more people beat the disease.”

Friday, 27 August 2010

Food Better Than Supplements for Cancer Prevention: Texas Expert


Nutritional supplements are popular among Americans but people need to educate themselves and use concern when using these products to try to decrease their risk of cancer, says a University of Texas expert.
"Researchers are still hesitant about whether or not minerals, herbs and other plants taken in pill, capsule, tablet or liquid form in fact prevent cancer," Sally Scroggs, health education manager at the Cancer Prevention Center at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Medical Center, said in a news discharge from the center.
Vitamins E and C, for example, were found not to prevent cancer in the large-scale Women's Health Study and the Physicians' Health revision II. Result from other studies suggest that some supplements may actually increase cancer risk by disturbing the balance of nutrients in the body.
"If you eat lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans, you must get the nutrients, including fiber, vitamins and minerals, your body needs to lower your chances of getting diseases like cancer," Scroggs said. "Taking a pill can't restore a healthy diet."
She recommended eating plenty of foods loaded with cancer-fighting nutrients such as beta-carotene, selenium, lycopene, resveratrol and vitamins A, C and E.
This includes women who are pregnant or breast-feeding; people at risk for vitamin D deficiency or osteoporosis; and people at risk for B-12 deficiency, including those aged 50 and older and vegans who devour no animal products.
Scroggs finished that if you're considering taking supplements, consult with a doctor or registered dietician first.