By Anthony Gucciardi
Archive for 2011
Too Much TV Raises Risk of Diabetes, Heart Disease and Death
Couch potatoes beware: All those hours in front of the TV may be making you sick, or even killing you. Watching television for two to three hours or more per day is linked to significantly higher risks of developing diabetes and heart disease and dying from all causes, according to a new analysis from the Harvard School of Public Health. Noting that Americans watch an average of about five hours of TV per day — the most common daily activity aside from working and sleeping.
Can Changing Your Diet Decrease Your Risk of Alzheimer’s?
A healthy diet isn’t just good for your body — it’s good for your brain and may help to ward off Alzheimer’s disease, a new study suggests. But changes in diet may not help protect those who are already experiencing problems with memory, the researchers said. The study measured levels of biomarkers associated with Alzheimer’s disease, including certain proteins found in spinal fluid.
Pesticides in Fruits and Vegetables: What to Do
You know you should eat your fruits and vegetables, but with a “dirty dozen” list of pesticide-contaminated produce out today and the recent e.coli outbreak linked to supposedly safer organic produce, what’s a would-be healthy eater to do? The answer from health experts — and even the people who did the study on pesticide residue in produce — is still the same: Eat those fruits and vegetables, but get them as clean as you can.
8 New Substances Added to List of Carcinogens
Eight new substances have been added to a list of carcinogens by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The congressionally mandated report identifies substances that are either known to be human carcinogens or are reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen. The new additions, announced on June 6, include formaldehyde and aristolochic acids, a family of acids that occur naturally in some plant species, which are now both considered known human carcinogens.
We Are All Mutants: First Direct Whole-Genome Measure of Human Mutation Predicts 60 New Mutations in Each of Us
Each one of us receives approximately 60 new mutations in our genome from our parents. This striking value is reported in the first-ever direct measure of new mutations coming from mother and father in whole human genomes. For the first time, researchers have been able to answer the questions: how many new mutations does a child have and did most of them come from mum or dad? The researchers measured directly the numbers of mutations in two families, using whole genome sequences from the 1000 Genomes Project.
Apples Top Most Pesticide-Contaminated List
Apples are at the top of the list of produce most contaminated with pesticides in a report published today by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a public health advocacy group. Its seventh annual report analyzed government data on 53 fruits and vegetables, identifying which have the most and least pesticides after washing and peeling. For produce found to be highest in pesticides, the group recommends buying organic.
Breastfeeding Linked to Lower Risk of SIDS
Babies who are breastfed – especially those only fed breast milk, and not formula as well – are less likely to die of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, suggests a new analysis of past studies. While the findings can’t prove that breastfeeding causes the lower risk of SIDS, the authors write in Pediatrics that other explanations seem unlikely. “Breastfeeding is the best method of feeding infants,” said Dr. Fern Hauck, the study’s lead author from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville.
Try this Widely Used Practice to Overcome Grief or Loss
Why are we roaring though space on this mud ball, and what is life all about anyway? I was seven years old when I came across a deer that had just died in a wooded area not far from my house. It was the unfamiliar stillness that stopped me first. I was walking into a foreign atmosphere, a pocket of life, or rather lack of it, which felt so apart from school, and home and friends. What is it in me that knew instantly, viscerally, that the boldly silent body was more than just a deer at rest?
You can be Fired for Using Medical Marijuana, Justices Rule
It turns out that you can be fired for legally using medical marijuana in Washington state. The Washington state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that TeleTech Customer Care, a Colorado-based firm that handles customer service for Sprint from its Bremerton facility, was allowed to fire a woman for failing its required drug test. The plaintiff, who sued under the pseudonym Jane Roe, was pulled out of her training class after a week and fired Oct.18, 2006, because she failed a pre-employment drug test. She had a valid medical-marijuana authorization from a doctor.
Ovarian Cancer Screening Does More Harm than Good, Study Shows
An 18-year study from the National Cancer Institute has found that widespread screening for ovarian cancer doesn’t save lives but does set up many women for needless surgery and avoidable complications. The results, published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., were not a complete surprise, said study co-author Dr. Christine Berg of the National Cancer Institute. Still, experts are disappointed that yet another attempt to catch cancer early has failed to help patients beat the disease.
