In a global world, significant factors affect the spread of infectious diseases, including international trade, air travel and globalized food production. “Airport malaria” is a term coined by researchers to explain the more recent spread of malaria to areas such as the United States and Europe, which some scientists credit to warmer climate changes.
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Whether they admit it or not, kids look to their parents as role models.
“What you do has a huge effect on what they do,” says Chipko, who works with youth from 9 to 18.
If you’re a couch potato, you may pass that trait on to your children. On the other hand, if kids grow up in a family where they walk the dog, hike, or go for bike rides, they will emulate that behavior, says Keller.
“When trying to teach kids discipline,” says Chipko, “you as a parent should have some as well.”
Women who have had two or more induced abortions have a reduced risk of pre-eclampsia by 60 %. It is not currently understood to what degree physical activity during pregnancy protects against pre-eclampsia, compared to previous studies. This is shown in two new studies from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) that use data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa). The new results from MoBa were presented on Friday 7th November at 21st Norwegian Perinatal Days, a conference organised jointly with the 2008 International Stillbirth Conference. The NIPH chaired the conference and many researchers from the NIPH presented research about stillbirth and findings from the MoBa.
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DiaGenic ASA (OSL: DIAG) and Applied Biosystems Inc. (NYSE: ABI) today announced the launch of BCtect(TM), a blood-based test for early detection of breast cancer. The test searches for a unique gene expression signature identified by DiaGenic using a custom TaqMan(R) Array manufactured for DiaGenic by Applied Biosystems. India was chosen as the first country for the introduction of BCtect(TM) after successful completion of a large study in the country.
The DiaGenic BCtect(TM) test addresses a significant medical need in India, where breast cancer is the second leading cause of death among women. The lack of a coordinated national screening program means that breast cancer is typically detected at a late stage, resulting in high mortality rates compared to Western countries. Last year alone, nearly 100,000 women in the country died from the disease. Breast cancer is also on the rise, with an estimated 250,000 new cases expected in India by 2015. A key problem has been the detection of only 10% of cases at an early stage, which lags far behind Western countries where detection rates reach as high as 65%.
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Calcium and vitamin D supplements may do more than strengthen bones in older women. These vital nutrients may also help younger, active women reduce their risk of stress fractures.
To illustrate that point, many bone health experts refer to a recent study of more than 5,200 female U.S. Navy recruits that found that women who didn’t take additional calcium and vitamin D were about 25 percent more likely to suffer a stress fracture than women who took the vitamin and mineral combination.
“The most common time for a stress fracture is when you’re increasing your exercise levels — when you’re going from doing nothing to doing a whole lot. It’s too much, too fast, and the bone can’t handle it,” explained Dr. Sabrina Strickland, an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in sports medicine at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.
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Consuming increasingly higher doses of powdered milk may help children with milk allergies overcome their condition, a new study suggests.
In the double-blinded, placebo-controlled study of milk immunotherapy, all 12 children receiving milk powder daily significantly increased their tolerance of milk after four months, from no more than 40 milligrams to at least 2,540 milligrams (2.5 ounces). Meanwhile, the seven children receiving a placebo powder showed no improvement.
The findings were published in the Oct. 28 print edition of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. The study was conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center and Duke University.
“Our findings suggest that oral immunotherapy gradually retrains the immune system to completely disregard or to better tolerate the allergens in milk that previously caused allergic reactions,” study senior investigator Dr. Robert Wood, director of Allergy and Immunology at Hopkins Children’s, said in a hospital news release. “Albeit preliminary and requiring further study, these results suggest that oral immunotherapy may be the closest thing yet to a true treatment for food allergy.”
Children regularly consuming milk powder had more milk antibodies in their blood, and were better able to tolerate milk than those on the placebo. As a result, the researchers recommended that these children continue consuming milk daily to maintain and further build their resistance.
The researchers aren’t sure what would happen if the children stopped consuming milk regularly. “It may very well be that this tolerance is lost once the immune system is no longer exposed to the allergen daily,” Wood said.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently estimated that food allergies in children have risen 18 percent in the last decade, with 3 million children in the United States having at least one food allergy. Being allergic to milk is the most prevalent one.
Most food allergies are managed through simple avoidance of the trigger foods in hope that the child will outgrow the allergy.
“Given that the quality of life of a child with a food allergy is comparable to the quality of life of a child with diabetes, we urgently need therapies that go beyond strict food avoidance or waiting for the child to outgrow the allergy,” Wood said.
Wood said further research is necessary, so parents and caregivers should not try oral immunotherapy without medical supervision.
By HealthDay
Postmenopausal women who have lost interest in sex may be able to bring their libidos back to life with a testosterone patch, according to new research published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine.
However, the use of the male hormone to boost sex drive in women may not be risk-free. Out of the 814 women in the study, four women who were taking testosterone developed breast cancer, but none of the women on placebo did. It’s not clear whether this was a statistical blip or a warning sign that excess testosterone could cause or spur the growth of a malignancy. Some women also reported excess hair growth, although none stopped using the hormone for this reason.
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It’s been a stressful two years for Barack Obama. He’s campaigned nonstop, day-to-day, hour-to-hour, flying to different states and sleeping in different time zones. He’s also had to fight off the typical character attacks and mudslinging that hit any candidate for office.
And, on the eve of the election, his grandmother, a woman he credits for helping to raise him, died of cancer.
As studies have shown and many a doctor has seen with his own eyes, stress takes a toll on the body. It can lead to premature aging, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, depression and cancer.
So how old is Obama? Biologically, he’s 47 years and 3 months old. But a program called Realage.com says his “true age” is at least 49 years and 8 months old. The Web site claims it can calculate your “true age” based on a myriad of factors, including how often you visit your doctor, what your vital signs are, how often you exercise, what you eat, what your extracurricular activities are, and how much stress you have in your life.
There are many unknowns concerning Obama’s health. What is known is that he’s been a smoker on and off for many years, he’s African American, he’s middle aged and, as his doctor attested to in a statement released earlier this year, he’s in excellent physical condition.
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Cold weather conjures up many images: snowball fights, cuddling by the fireplace, drinking hot cocoa.
Perhaps the image of an inspired workout is best left for sunnier days — which is why you are lacking the motivation to get out from under the warm covers actually do anything, much less exercise.
No worries, though, FOXNews teamed up with Manhattan’s Crunch Fitness and New York City’s WPLJ 95.5 FM to put together an invigorating winter workout playlist.
Hopefully, these songs will have you burning a steady stream of calories by the end of December, so that you can toss back an extra glass of champagne on New Year’s Eve without the guilt.
1. Song: “Rock ‘N Roll Train”
Artist: AC/DC
Why it’s great: “This is No. 1 in 29 countries,” said WPLJ’s Race Taylor, who hosts the “Afternoon Drive” show. “It’s classic vintage AC/DC with a twist for the modern era. If you are pumping anything, this should motivate you.”
Suggested workout: “Any AC/DC song should be used to lift some major, heavy weights,” said Marc Santa Maria, regional group fitness director at Crunch. “They just make you wanna kick butt and pump that weight.”
2. Song: “So What”
Artist: Pink
Why it’s great: “This is great to bust out your rock moves and blow raspberries at the end,” Taylor said. “And, it’s probably the best use of the word ‘tool’ in a song. You wouldn’t think it, but Pink really does love her ex-husband.”
Suggested workout: “This song is hot,” Santa Maria agreed. “All attitude for stairmaster or a high-incline treadmill walk. We’re talking incline 15 power walk time.”
3. Song: “Keeps Getting Better”
Artist: Christina Aguilera
Why it’s great: “This song says it all,” Taylor said.
Suggested workout: “Picture doing 100’s or teasers in your Pilates mat class to this song,” Santa Maria said. “Keep your breaths steady and your abs as fierce as Christina’s voice.”
Once elderly patients are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, the presence of other illnesses and the patients’ ethnic background appear to affect their length of survival, investigators report in the medical journal Neurology.
Led by Dr. Yaakov Stern, the research team at Columbia University Medical Center identified 323 cases of Alzheimer’s disease from a group of approximately 4300 Medicare recipients who were enrolled in the Washington Heights Inwood Columbia Aging Project in New York.
More than half of the subjects were Hispanic, one third were African American and about 10 percent were white. Stern’s group followed these patients for an average of 4 years, to a maximum of about 13 years.
Although overall the overall average lifespan (92 years) and age at diagnosis (83 years) did not differ by racial or ethnic group, the average length of survival after Alzheimer’s disease was diagnosed was 8 years among Hispanics, significantly longer than among whites (4 years) and African Americans (5 years).
A history of diabetes and high blood pressure both independently shortened survival. Closer analysis of the data revealed that the mortality risk was increased by 2.6-fold among Alzheimer’s disease patients with high blood pressure, and by 2-fold among patients who also had diabetes, both statistically significant differences.
Age was also a significant predictor of shortened survival time, with an average post-diagnosis survival of 10 years among those between 67 and 74 years old; 7 years among those between 75 and 84 years; and 4 years among those between 85 and 100 years old, all statistically significant differences.
In contrast to most other studies, the team did not detect any association between survival duration and gender, history of heart disease or malignancy, or the presence of APOE-epsilon-4 alleles - the gene associated with Alzheimer’s disease that is detected in some but not all who develop this type of dementia.
The lack of any apparent association with the APOE gene, Stern’s group suggests, “may reflect a differential effect of epsilon-4 in the earlier stages of disease that is eclipsed by other factors (medical, social, or disease-related factors) later in the disease course.”
By FoxNews
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