A blood pressure medication can cut the risk of stroke in people who have atrial fibrillation, a type of irregular heartbeat that can cause blood clots to form, researchers conclude.
Researchers reporting Thursday in the journal Stroke found that use of the antihypertensive drug perindropil -- an ACE inihibitor -- improved patients' health even if they were already taking anticoagulants to keep their blood thin.
The study followed 476 patients with atrial fibrillation. Risk of a major stroke decreased 41 percent in patients who already were on anticoagulants, and 34 percent in patients who were not.
"Patients with atrial fibrillation obtain substantial benefit from anticoagulant therapy. However, the risk of serious vascular complications remains high. These findings suggest that routine blood pressure-lowering is likely to provide additional protection against major vascular events such as stroke," Dr. John C. Chalmers, senior director of the George Institute for International Health in Sydney, Australia, said in a prepared statement.
-- Dennis Thompson
SOURCES: American Heart Association, news release, Sept. 1, 2005
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Thursday, October 20, 2005
BLOOD PRESSURE DRUG CUTS ARRYTHMIA STROKE RISK
Friday, October 14, 2005
SUSAN G. KOMEN BREAST CANCER FOUNDATION
EARLY DETECTION: DO YOU KNOW THE FACTS?
Each year, 182,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and 43,300 die. One woman in 8 either has or will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. In addition, 1,600 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer and 400 will die this year.
If detected early, the five-year survival rate exceeds 95%. Mammograms are among the best early detection methods, yet 13 million U.S. women 40 years of age or older have never had a mammogram.
The National Cancer Institute and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommend that women in their forties and older have mammograms every one to two years. A complete early detection plan also includes regular clinical breast examinations by a trained medical professional. Monthly breast self-exams are suggested in addition.
Building Your Self-Esteem
By Dr. Neil Clark Warren |
| People whose self-esteem is low have emotional health that is likely to be poor. If you don't think very highly of yourself, you become a sitting duck for any neurosis. A neurosis is a way of relating to life. When we come under the threat of anxiety, in an effort to manage the anxiety in our lives, we use defense mechanisms that, in themselves, become ongoing problems for us. For instance, the Wall Street Journal says that we have an epidemic of depression in the United States. Depression is the result of our having used a defense mechanism, usually repression, to try to get rid of our anxiety. In getting rid of our anxiety we get rid of all our feelings, and so we find ourselves sitting on the side of a bed with one shoe off, but we just don't have the energy to remove the other shoe. Now, why are we in that condition? We're in that condition because we feel so inadequate at the center of ourselves. Life is posing challenges and problems that we don't know how to handle, so in our effort to try to get rid of those challenges and problems we use repression. In using the repression we get rid of all of our feelings. When we get rid of our feelings, we end up with little energy and without an ability to function properly in the world. It all begins with an inadequate self-conception. It all starts with low self esteem. Without a foundation of unshakable self value you'll never be able to confront life's frustrations and challenges without turning on yourself. If you have low self-esteem, it's vital that you go to work to get it raised. Positive self-esteem needs to be deep-rooted before you engage in any serious dating relationship. The same is true for anyone you date. When I talk to two people who are becoming serious about each other, one of the first things I look for in both of them is whether they feel good about themselves. Your self-esteem needs to be at a good level before you begin a relationship that has the possibility of lasting for a lifetime. Two things you can do to improve your self-esteem Let's assume that your self-esteem or that of your partner is just not what it needs to be right now. There are two core activities that begin to establish better self-esteem. The first thing I want to suggest to you is the importance of tuning in to your Self-Talk. Can you imagine having an internal recorder that could actually replay what you say when no one else is listening? What if you could replay the conversations you have had with yourself over the last several hours? What kinds of phrases would you hear? The fact is, most of the time we have little conscious awareness of our own internal dialogue, and yet this self-talk has a huge impact on how you feel about yourself. With a little practice, you can tune into this information and use it to bolster your self-image. If your self talk is highly negative, it is virtually guaranteed that your self-esteem will be weak. In fact, it has been my experience that people cannot have a profound sense of their own significance until they develop self-talk that promotes their value as a person. Once you've become more aware of your self-talk, you'll be able to moderate your inner conversation. You'll be able to take a kinder tone and recognize your intrinsic value. The second thing I want you to do is to become a chooser and a decider. I know no one who has adequate self-esteem who isn't what I call a chooser and a decider. I want you to allow yourself to be the captain of your own ship. I believe that at the center of your brain there is something like a control booth. It reminds me of the NBC booth at the Republican National Convention. It's round and in my head it has glass all around it. At the center of this booth are a lot of telephones and computers. Your task is to get yourself at the center of your own control booth, and, once you are there, you need to do two things. The first is to get all the information into your booth you can about whatever it is you're trying to make a decision on. Get data from all your thoughts and feelings. Then find out what the people important to you recommend and what the common wisdom is about this choice. Then the second thing that you do is to stand in the middle of all that information and YOU make the decision. You decide for yourself. You don't let other people tell you who you will be in a given moment or what you will decide. When you do that, you become a choosing, deciding person. No individual can be a real person unless they are a chooser and decider. If you give up control over your booth to someone else, like a mother or a father, someone you're dating, or a peer group, you give up your personhood. When you give up your personhood, I promise you, you won't feel very good about yourself. But when you take your control booth back and you take over again being a chooser and a decider, you will feel really good about yourself and take an important step in the direction of self determination. It is the basis of the self esteem a successful life requires.
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Thursday, October 13, 2005
Protect Yourself From Prescription Errors
WebMD Public Information with the Department of Health and Human Services
Understanding Your Medications
The single most important way you can stay healthy is to be an active member of your own healthcare team. And understanding the importance your medication plays in your treatment is a big part of that.
To get the fullest benefit from your prescription, avoid problems, and reduce possible side effects, ask your doctor or pharmacist the following questions:
- What is the name of the medicine? What is it supposed to do?
- What is the dose of the medicine?
- Are there food, drinks, other medicines, or activities I should avoid while taking this medicine?
- What are the possible side effects of the medicine? What should I do if they occur?
- How long will I need to take the medication?
- What should I do if I miss a dose?
- What should I do if I accidentally take more than the recommended dose?
- How often will the medicine's effects be checked? For example, checking your cholesterol level if you are taking a medicine to lower it.
- Is there any written information I can take home with me? (Most pharmacies have information sheets that you can use as an at-home reference.)
When you pick up your medicine at the pharmacy, check the label carefully to be sure it is the medicine you were prescribed by your doctor. And ask your pharmacist any questions you might have about the prescription.
First-Time Prescription
When your doctor prescribes a medication for you for the first time, make sure to tell him or her the following:
- The names of all medicines you are currently taking, including both over-the-counter and prescription medication as well as any dietary supplements. It is important for your doctor to know this information in order to prescribe the medicine that will be the most helpful. (Keep a list of medicines and how to take them, like this one.)
- Any concerns you have about using your medication. For example, if cost is a concern there may be a generic drug or another lower cost medicine you can take.
- If you are allergic to any medication or have had troubling side effects from a medication that has been prescribed to you.
- If you are or might become pregnant, or if you are nursing a baby.
- Any illnesses or problems for which another doctor or health professional is treating you.
Assessing Effectiveness
During your treatment, you should schedule a follow-up visit to your doctor to monitor your progress. Make sure to tell him or her:
- About any problems you are having with your prescription.
- About any side effects or problems you have had since starting to take the prescription.
- About any new prescriptions that another doctor may have given you and any over-the-counter medicines or dietary supplements that you started taking since your last doctor's visit.
- How you are feeling since starting the medication.
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2005 Fitness Buzzword -- CORE
Fit to the Core
The fitness buzzword for 2005? Core conditioning. This trend -- all about strengthening and stabilizing the muscles of your midsection -- began bubbling up a few years ago, introduced to the fitness world by physical therapists, but it took fun equipment and classes to make it the hottest thing in the health club.
"Ten years ago, I don't think we had the toys that we have now that make it more enjoyable to work on the core," says Kathie Davis, executive director of IDEA Health and Fitness Association, which represents some 19,000 exercise professionals in 80 countries. She's talking not only about the big, bright stability balls but about BOSU balls, wobble boards, and foam rollers -- all of which are becoming must-haves at many fitness centers.
In IDEA's latest survey, 60% of its member centers offer balance equipment like BOSU balls and wobble boards (up 67% from last year), 64% offer core conditioning classes (up 59%), and 87% have stability balls (up 56%).
"People have begun to realize that strengthening the core is the most important thing to enable them to do all the activities they want to do," says Davis. "If I want to ski next season, it's imperative that I strengthen my core. I love to play tennis, and I know that it's going to improve my serve and I'll be quicker on the court." And core conditioning isn't just about sports: A stronger midsection helps with more everyday tasks, such as carrying the groceries or toting a recalcitrant 2-year-old.
Expect to see more creative ways to build your balance and strengthen your core in the coming year, says Debi Pillarella, the American Council on Exercise's Fitness Director of the Year for 2004. Foam rollers, one fairly new toy that's already on the way up in the IDEA survey, takes the BOSU ball one step further. "The BOSU ball is one device that you stand on, while with the foam rollers, you put one under each foot," says Pillarella. "It's like trying to balance on logs, and it takes the challenge up a notch." Beginners can start with foam rollers (which look a lot like pool noodles) sliced in half, to give them a flatter base to balance on at first.
And guess what's back? The hula hoop! And it's not just for kids anymore. This time it's weighted to add challenge, says Pillarella. "It adds an element of play and fun to core stability work," she says, predicting that it will be a hit during the holiday season.
Exercise for the Mind and Body
With apparently no end in sight to the popularity of Pilates, savvy health clubs have combined the popular body conditioning program with other hot mind-body exercises, such as yoga and tai chi, to create hybrids like Yogilates. They're also pairing up strength training with Pilates or yoga. According to a survey by the IDEA Health and Fitness Association, more than a third of health clubs offered Pilates-yoga fusion classes last year, and more than two-thirds predict that the trend will become more widespread this year.
"For those of us who are baby boomers, and were doing high-impact aerobics in our 20s, now we're in our late 40s and are looking for gentler activities that still challenge us," says Davis. "Yoga and Pilates work similar muscles and both have a quieter, low-impact approach, so they work very well together."
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Low Carb is OUT
Just as archaeologists trace the history of a civilization by excavating layer after layer of earth, you can also track the history of my diet and exercise programs by digging down through the layers in my closet. Or at least you could until I moved and was forced into a yard sale. Sorting through the old books, videotapes, and equipment was like jumping into a fitness trend time machine.
There was the Scarsdale Diet, the grapefruit diet, the Zone diet. Abs of Steel, Buns of Steel, Achilles Tendons of Steel (not really), Jazzercise, and Tae Bo were in the mix. And let's not forget the Ab Roller, the Thighmaster, or the Buttmaster. OK, I confess, I didn't really buy into every one of these diet and exercise crazes, but like many people seeking a better body, more than a few captured at least some of my time and attention.
With the high-calorie holiday season here, it's not too soon to start thinking about the diet and exercise trends for 2005, the ones that we'll soon be vowing to follow after gorging on turducken and pumpkin pie. What's on the horizon -- and will these new trends sizzle, then fizzle, or stand the test of time?
Low Carb on Its Way Out
The big diet headline of 2005 may be the beginning of the end of a trend. If 2004 was the Year of the Carb Busters -- with businesses from Lean Cuisine to McDonald's to beer distributors trying to cash in on the high-protein, low-carbohydrate craze -- many diet experts predict that 2005 will be the Year of the Crash for low-carb mania.
Just as the low-fat frenzy peaked in the early 1990s, then disappeared almost as fast as it came, carb-phobia seems to be on its way out. Harry Balzer, who tracks America's eating habits for the NPD Group, a leading national market research firm, predicts that low-carb dieting will start to decline after reaching its peak in 2004 (none too soon for companies such as Krispy Kreme, which has blamed declining sales on the carb police).
NPD's research shows that the number of people in the U.S. who say they follow carb-slashing diets like Atkins and South Beach hit a high-water mark in January at 9%. The number has since dropped to around 7%. That's not to say that you won't still be seeing low-carb products on supermarket shelves for years to come. After all, Snackwell's low-fat cookies are still around despite years of declining sales.
"But you can't fight statistics," says Bonnie Taub-Dix, RD, a dietitian in New York, and a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association (ADA). "Just as with the low-fat craze, the low-carb movement hasn't really changed our rate of obesity. All the low-carb aisles in supermarkets aren't making Americans smaller. All they're doing is making [food] producers' wallets bigger."
ADA spokeswoman Cynthia Sass, RD, says that consumers have finally become clued in to the underlying flaws in the "good food, bad food" approach to eating. "When you single out one nutrient and try to make healthy eating all about that, it doesn't work," she says. "When we were fat-phobic, taking fat out meant putting sugar in. Now, taking carbs out means putting fat in. There are low-carb foods on the market that have more total net calories than their original versions because the manufacturer has replaced those carbs with fat."
The plus side of the low-fat to low-carb pendulum, predicts Sass, is that consumers may have learned a little more about the idea of balance in food choices from these wild back-and-forth swings. "It doesn't have to be all or nothing, it's really about how much you're taking in of any nutrient compared to what your body needs," she says.
So what might replace carb counting in the hearts, minds, and waistlines of weight-conscious Americans?
The New Satiety Diet
The satiety diet involves eating more of the kinds of foods that make you feel full but don't make you fat. Penn State nutrition expert Barbara Rolls, PhD, calls it "volumetrics," and will release a companion book to her 2003 release, The Volumetrics Weight Control Plan: Feel Full on Fewer Calories, in the spring. Diet experts think it's an idea whose time has finally come.
"People have often associated volume with calories, but that's not true," says Sass of the ADA. "Now they're starting to get the message that two foods can have the exact same nutritional value and calorie count, but one may have a much greater volume -- which means it makes you feel full faster. People like this, because it's satisfying, takes longer to eat, and makes you feel like you've had more food."
Consider, for example, grapes versus raisins. They're more or less the same thing: a raisin is a dried grape. But 100 calories of raisins fill only a quarter of a cup, while 100 calories of fresh, whole grapes fill nearly 2 cups. The difference, of course, is water content. "When a lot of the content of the food is water, that portion of the food basically doesn't count toward your calorie intake," says Sass. "You'll feel satisfied after eating 2 cups of grapes, but if you're eating raisins, you're more likely to keep tossing them in your mouth."
The point, she says, isn't to stop eating raisins (or chocolate, cheese, and other high-calorie, low-volume foods). Remember, we're not about eliminating entire categories of food from our diets anymore. Instead, fill up first on foods that are high in volume but low in calories, so you don't gorge on the low-volume treats.
Foods that are high on the satiety scale include those that are naturally rich in water: fruits, vegetables, beans, fish, and poultry. Anything that contains fiber, such as high-fiber cereals, will also last longer in your system, says dietitian Taub-Dix. "High-fiber foods create bulk, especially when they're combined with liquids like water or milk."
Nutrition expert Rolls also recommends "water-rich dishes" as part of the satiety plan -- foods such as soups, stews, and casseroles (they're back!). Even calorie-dense foods like pasta can be OK, if you go light on the noodles (soy noodles are fine) and heavy on accompanying vegetables.
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Monday, October 3, 2005
TIME TO GET FIT RECIPES!
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Tuesday, September 13, 2005
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Wednesday, August 24, 2005
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Tuesday, April 26, 2005
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