Healthsifter by mary desmond pinkowish, since 2003

Which Parents Fear Vaccines the Most?

The answer may surprise you--or not. Read this interview with Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear, at Science Insider. Here's a hint: If there's a Whole Foods store in your neighborhood, non-vaccinating parents may be counting on you to vaccinate your kids to protect their kids. Confused? Read more.

Would A Robot Companion Help You Lose Weight?

"She" never scolds, she's always positive, and she wants to help you lose weight. She's Autom the weight-loss robot, and she may be available as early as this summer for $500-600.  The idea seems to be that having this small, friendly robot look you in the eye after you've input your diet and exercise information onto her screen will make you more accountable for your efforts--or lack thereof. Autom's manufacturers, Intuitive Automata, say that in their studies, dieters who had Autom's company lost more weight that people who used old-fashioned diet logs or computer programs. See Autom in this video from this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Hey, whatever it takes! Read more at Discovery News.

  

Clean Little Girls May Grow Up Allergic

According to the hygiene hypothesis (and at this time it's still just a hypothesis), when kids grow up sheltered from allergens, microorganisms, and parasites, the immune system doesn't learn its job properly. The result? More allergic and autoimmune disease later in life. Remember, it's just a hypothesis, but a researcher at Oregon State thinks that it may explain why women are more likely than men to have these diseases as adults. Little girls tend to get less dirty, says Dr. Sharyn Clough, and this may lead to more allergic-based diseases as adults. Read more about this--and a common sense solution--at PsychCentral.  Click here to read the original story from OSU. 

UPDATED February 6: Read the NPR blog story on this topic.

Breast Implants? Should You Be Worried About That "Rare" Cancer?

Anaplastic large cell lymphoma is a rare cancer that sometimes shows up in the breast. This week, the FDA said that the malignancy had shown up in the tissue surrounding some breast implants at a higher-than-expected rate--but still a very low rate. Katherine Hobson at the Wall Street Journal Health Blog has an informative post on the topic. All you need or want to know. And don't worry--at least about this.

The Brain in Your Gut

Don't miss this article in today's Wall Street Journal about the enteric nervous system, also known as the gut brain. It's a collection of 500 million nerve cells--as many as in a cat's brain (think about it)--that are distributed throughout the esophagus, stomach, and small and large intestine. The gut brain sends messages about fullness and hunger to the upstairs brain, telling it to eat, stop eating, etc. New insights about the enteric nervous system are driving companies including Nestle to find ways to trick both brains into thinking they've had enough to eat. Fascinating. 

Stress Management for People Recovering from Heart Attacks

Chronic stress (employment or marital problems) and emotional issues (depression, anxiety, hostility) have been tied to a higher risk of heart attacks, or acute myocardial infarction (AMI). But does managing these psychological risk factors reduce the risk of AMI? The studies that have asked the question so far have had conflicting results, but a new, large one reported today in the Archives of Internal Medicine seems to suggest that stress-management therapy may reduce the risk of a heart attack in people who have already had one.

The strength of this study is that they compared two treatments. All of the patients had had MIs during the past year. All received "normal" post-MI medical care, meaning that no one got substandard help during recovery. All patients had similar "traditional" risk factors for MI, like high blood pressure and cholesterol problems. But slightly more than half of the participants also got stress management therapy--20 two-hour sessions over the course of a year. Researchers kept in touch with the people for an average of 94 months. The outcome? The rate of recurrent cardiovascular events was 41% lower in people who participated in the stress management program. And one of the most interesting findings was that among the people who were assigned to get stress management therapy, the risk was lower in those who went to sessions regularly than those who skipped frequently. 

Pretty cool. Read the study summary here.

Sports-related Concussions

1/27/11: The CDC released a new document on concussions in winter sports with bunches of resources. Click here.

Sports-related concussions are a hot topic right now, and justifiably so. The concerns aren't limited to football, either. Here are some resources I ran into this week. I'll add to this list as more become available. The big surprise is the article in National Geographic, same NatGeo that usually covers volcanos and fossils. I strongly recommend Jeffrey Kluger's article in the January 31 issue of Time; the article isn't available online yet.

National Geographic 

The New Yorker (January 31, 2011 issue)

Time

Slate

Decades Ahead of His Time: RIP Jack LaLanne

Jack LaLanne, often called a fitness "nut" when his career was at its peak, passed over the weekend at his California home. Way ahead of his time--and of Jane Fonda, Richard Simmons, and others--LaLanne passed along what had worked for him as he transformed from a sickly, unhappy kid into a fit, slim, and seemingly happy adult. His formula? Daily exercise with weights, cardio work, lots of veggies and fish, and a cheerful attitude. He credited Paul Bragg, father of the Natural Health movement, for putting him on the right path. LaLanne was a contemporary of Bonnie Prudden, who apparently is still alive and who received the Lifetime Achievement Award from President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. Obits today in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.  And check out this vintage video. It was good advice in the 50s, and it's good advice now. And what can I say? Jack died at 96, and Bonnie is still going at 97. (Yes, those are ballet slippers the big-gunned-one is wearing with his famous exercise suit.)

 

Dr. Drew Pinsky is Sick with Leptospirosis: Get Better!

According to Today Celebrities web site, Drew Pinsky, MD, got sick with leptospirosis somewhere in the West Indies and is currently hospitalized. Leptospirosis is caused by exposure to the spirochete bacteria Leptospira, to which humans and animals are susceptible. Leptospirosis is quite common in warm/tropical areas and among people who work outside and with livestock, a fact that's reflected in some of the other names it goes by, like Swineherd's disease, Rice-field fever, Cane-cutter fever, Swamp fever, and Mud fever. (What kind of a vacation was Dr. Drew on?? :-))

Some people are symptomless and never know they are infected with Leptospira, while others get a high fever, aches, fatigue, and severe vomiting and diarrhea. Left untreated, the infection can lead to liver or kidney problems, and even meningitis, according to the CDC.  Interestingly, leptospirosis is not transmitted person-to-person. That means the good folks (patients and staff) at the Pasadena Recovery Center, Sober House, and Celebrity Rehab are in the clear. The infection usually responds to common antibiotics.

Get better fast!

The Bedbugs are Winning

Bedbugs are getting the better of us according to today's Wall Street Journal. They're 1000 times more resistant to the pesticides used to control them than they were 10 years ago. Apparently evolving at the speed of light, they've found ways to strengthen their defenses against these chemicals by strengthening their outer shell (chitin), increasing their production of enzymes that chew up the chemicals in pesticides, and improving their nerve cell defenses against pesticides. Click here to read the accompanying article in the WSJ and here to see a slide show (watch for Freedom, the bedbug-chasing beagle).  The original paper is available for free at PLoS ONE.